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NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES

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HISTORY OF

Walworth County

WISCONSIN

ALBERT CLAYTON BECKWITH

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME I

1912
B. F. BO WEN & COMPANY

INDIANAPOLIS. INDIANA

PUBLIC LIBRAE \-

iyi&

DEDICATION.

This work i> respectfully dedicated ti>

THE PIONEERS,

since departed. May the memory of those who laid down their burdens
by the wayside ever be fragrant as the breath of summer
flowers, for their toils and sacrifices have made
Walworth Count) a garden of sun-
shine and delights.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

In preparing this work, which. is not so much a county history as a collec-
tion of notes to serve the coming historian, the following sources of informa-
tion have been used freely: The printed and manuscript collections of the
historical societies of the state and county ; the records of the adjutant-gen-
eral's office at Madison; the Legislative Manuals and other official publications
of the state; the Geological and Hydrographic Surveys of Wisconsin; the
county records at Elkhorn. including those at the office of the county jndge,
county clerk, clerk of the circuit court, treasurer, register of deeds, and superin-
tendent of schools; the books of the County Agricultural Society; "History of
Walworth County" (Chicago, 1882); Cravath's "Annals of Whitewater";
Simmons's "Annals of Lake Geneva" ; the files of Delavan, Elkhorn and White-
water newspapers; the personal recollections of the compiler and of many of
his known and unknown friends, within and without the county; the tomb-
stones of forty-five burial grounds; and unreckonable minor or incidental
papers, pamphlets, documents and letters.

A few words as to the plan and arrangement of this volume may not be
wholly useless. The theory of its construction is that a local history, its inter-
est, if any, confined to a narrow plat of ground, cannot have in it too much oi
the personal element. An arch-necromancer's uncanny skill could not avail to
restore anything like the semblance, even though but ghostly, of all those men
who once answered to the names found in the lists of land-patentees ot [838,
in the juror lists of [839, and in the town-officer lists of [843; but the patient
searcher of fading records may find a date, a wife's name, a hint oi heirs
wrangling over a will — something to show that these men have not all of them
become as forgotten kings ,,f pre-Mosaic dynasties.

The neighboring counties, in two States, were much like Walworth in
their origin and development ; and human nature was and is the same in all ol
them. Walworth included. But there were little lines in the lives of the earlier
men and women of Walworth that are yet of some human interest to their
descendant- and successors. To., little can be recovered of lives Ion- gone to
make each one's tale over-tedious. for mosl of them, little more than the
length of a tombstone inscription remains, but for us that little differentiates

AUTHOR S PREFACE.

Walworth from Rock and McHenry and all the other counties of the Union

and the Dominion.

[f this work were our county history's last word, far more could with
reason be required of it than is herein performed. A little, no doubt, worth
another workman's consideration, is added to the store of historic material.
It will be observed that in the lesser divisions of the volume the town- art-
taken in their alphabetical order for their readier finding. Citizen- of each
town of whom nearly nothing was learned but their names and a date or two
for each, are named with their towns. They of whom more detail was found
are placed in alphabetical order as a county list.

It would be pleasing to acknowledge explicitly all the favors shown by
old and new friends, official and unofficial: but the tally-list would be very long.
and omissions would seem coldly careless if not intentional. No person, how-
ever, can make even a barely passable local history without that kindly co-
operation nowhere to be found more intelligent and willing than in "glorious
old Walworth."

Albert C. Beckwith.
Elkhorn, July 15, 1912.

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE

All life and achievement is evolution; present wisdom comes from past
experience, ami present commercial prosperity has come only from past exer-
tion and suffering. The deeds and motives of the men that have gone before
have been instrumental in shaping the destinies of later communities and
states. The development of a new country was at once a task and a privi-
lege. It required great courage, sacrifice and privation. Compare the pres-
ent conditions of the people of Walworth county. Wisconsin, with what they
were one hundred years ago. From a trackless wilderness and virgin land.
it has come to be a center of prosperity and civilization, with millions of
wealth, systems of railways, grand educational institutions, splendid indus-
tries and immense agricultural and mineral productions. Can any thinking
person be insensible to the fascination of the study which discloses the
aspirations and efforts of the early pioneers who so strongly laid the founda-
tion upon which has been reared the magnificent prosperity of later days5
To perpetuate the story of these people and to trace and record the social,
political and industrial progress of the community from its first inception
is the function of the local historian. A sincere purpose to preserve facts
and personal memoirs that are deserving of perpetuation, and which unite
the present to the past, is the motive for the present publication. The work
has been in the hands of able writers, who have, after much patient study
and research, produced here the most complete biographical memoirs of
Walworth count). Wisconsin, ever offered to the public A specially valuable
and interesting department is that one devoted to the sketches of representative
citizens of this county whose records deserve preservation because of their
worth, effort and accomplishment. The publishers desire to extend their
thanks to the gentlemen who have so faithfully labored to this end. Thanks
are also due to the citizens of Walworth county for the uniform kindness with
which they have regarded this undertaking and for their many services ren-
dered in the gaining of necessary information.

In placing "Beckwith's History of Walworth County, Wisconsin," before
the citizens, the publishers can conscientiously claim that they have carried out
the plan as outlined in the prospectus. Every biographical sketch in the
work ha- been submitted to the part) interested, lor correction, and therefore
any error of fact, if there he any. is solel) due to the person lor whom the
sketch was prepared. Confident that our effort to please will fully meet the
approbation of the public, we are,

Respectfully.

THE PUBLISHERS.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I— PRE-GLACIAL EPOCH— GEOLOGY 25

Facts Derivable from Geological Surveys— Rock Measurements Underlying
Strata — Glaciers and their Traces.

CHAPTER [I— NATURAL FEATURES 29

Surface of the County — Heights Above Sen Level— Prairies, Openings and
Forests — Water Courses — Lakes ami Their Soundings Natural Products
Timber— Climate — A Memorable Season.

CHAPTER III— INDIANS— MOUNDS— GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 38

Indian Occupation — British Direcl Native Hostility -Black Hawk Chief Big
foot — Mounds and Relics — Geographical Names and Their Origin.

CHAPTER IV— SETTLEMENT OF THE OLD NORTHWEST 42

Conditions Surrounding First Settlers— Character of the Pioneers Birth-
places of Earliest Men of Walworth.

CHAPTER V— SURVEYS— GENEVA LAKE TROUBLE W

Contest at Lake Geneva — Christopher Payne Claim-marks Peace Restored
—Arrivals al Other Towns — The First Settler Contested claims Land Sales.

'CHAPTER VI— POLITICAL ORGANIZATION 53

Wisconsin Admitted to Statehood Location of Walworth County Organiza-
tion of Towns — Congressional and Legislative Districts Judicial Circuits.

CHAPTER VII— POLITICAL REPRESENTATION 58

First Representatives In the General Assembly- First County Officers First
Meeting of the Board of Commissioners- First Grand and iviit Jurors
Extracts from the Records.

CHAPTER VIII COUNTS BUILDINGS AND POOR FARM 64

Commissioners select Location for County Seat Firs! C a House Second

Court lions.- Second Jail and Register's Office Present Court House The
Present Jail -Fire Proof Vaults Care for the Poor.

CHAPTER IX- THE BENCH AND BAR 72

Hon. David Irvin— Journal of the First Day's Proceedings in Court Earlj
Jurors— Roll of Attorneys, 1839 18 Judges of the First Circuit Attorneys

from 1848 — Jury Commissioners.

CHAPTER X OFFICIAL ROSTER ">'■>

Eminent Men from Walworth Constitutional Conventions Probate Judges

— County Judges Court Commissioners State Senators Members of Assem
biy— Chairmen of Count] Board of Suiiervlsort Count] Clerks Count] Treas

CONTENTS.

urers — Sheriffs — Clerks of the Circuit Court — District Attorneys — Registers of
Deeds — County Surveyors — Superintendents of School — Superintendents of
Poor and Insane.

CHAPTER XI— DIVISIONS OF POLITICAL PARTIES 97

Party Lines Clearly Drawn in Early Elections — Early Election Returns — Sub-
sequent Political Ratio — Progress of the Republican Party.

CHAPTER XII— MILITARY HISTORY OF WALWORTH 104

Territorial Militia — The Sixth Wisconsin Regiment — The Civil War — Response
to the President's Call for Soldiers — Wisconsin's Record — Aid Rendered by
Women and Non-Combatants — Grand Army of the Republic — Walworth
County Soldiers and Sailors' Association — Soldiers' Memorial Roll — Spanish-
American War — Enlisted Men from Walworth.

CHAPTER XIII— NOTEWORTHY INSTITUTIONS 158

Yerkes Observatory — State School for the Deaf — State Normal School — North-
western Military Academy.

CHAPTER XIV— WALWORTH COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 170

Fair and Cattle Show, 1850 — Subsequent Fairs — Fair Grounds — Officers of the
Society.

CHAPTER XV— CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS 176

Early Religious Meetings — Organization of Churches — Baptist Statistics for
1909 — Other Denominations — Public Schools — Early Sentiment Strong for
Education — School Superintendence- — Present System.

CHAPTER XVI— ROADS AND RAILWAYS 183

Indian Trails — Highways Established by Legislature— Present System — Rail-
ways— Collapse of Some Early Railway Plans — Public Land Grants.

CHAPTER XVII— COUNTY HISTORICAL AND OLD SETTLERS SOCIETIES 193

Early Provisions for Preservation of Local History — Organization of Old Set-
tlers' Society — Officers of the Society— Incorporation of the Walworth County
Historical Society — Members.

CHAPTER XVIII LOCAL EDITORS AM' AUTHORS FINE ARTS 199

Writers of Earliest Countj History Occasional Writers — Newspaper Editors
Local Poets — Song Writers and Musical Composition — The Palette and
Brush — Oratory.

CHAPTER XIX MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS OP INTEREST 209

Early Temperance Societies Saloon Licenses — Civic Societies — Freemasonry
Lodges, I'ast .nil] Present Other Societies -Turtle Creek Drainage l»istriet
Troj Drainage District Commissioner of Roads— Assessor of income Tax —

The Speculative spirit Melodrama in Court Early Educational Efforts

Early Teachers Noteworthy Events— Dairy interests Early Births Early

Marriages in Memoriam- Losses by Fire.

CHAPTER XX TOWN OF BL( ») >M l'l l-M.l > 226

Origin of Name Natural Features Agricultural Returns -Population — -First

Permanent Settlement Karly Families Civil-war Soldiers from Bloomfleld—

CONTENTS.

Town Officers — Genoa Junction — Religious Societies — Commercial Interests —
Village Organization.

CHAPTER XXI— TOWN AND VILLAGE OF DAKIEN 240

Area — Natural Features — Statistics — First Settlers in the Town — Early Growth
—Official Roster.

CHAPTER XXII— TOWN OF DELAVAN 248

One of the Original Civil Subdivisions — Natural Features- Land Area Pop-
ulation— Early Arrivals — Official Lists of Town and City.

CHAPTER XXIII— CITY OF DELAVAN 257

Colonel Phoenix, the Founder, and Other Early Business Men Hotels and
Taverns — Commercial Enterprises — Advent of Railroads — The Press — Religious
Societies — Educational Interests — Public Library — Water Works Fire Depart-
ment— Delavan Guards — Cities of the Dead — Official Roster Postoffice Historj
— Population.

CHAPTER XXIV— TOWN OF EAST TROY J72

Description — Natural Features — Land Area — First Settlers — Official Roster
Village of East Troy — Churches — Newspapers — Village Organization Posl
office — Public Houses — Business Items.

CHAPTER XXV— CITY OF ELKHORN 286

Speculative Enterprise — The Embryo City — Early Coiners— Additions to the
Village — Location and General Natural Features of the City Churches and
Schools — Business Interests — Banks and Bankers— Brick and Tile Making
Religious Societies — Newspapers — Public Utilities— Official Roster.

CHAPTER XXVI— TOWN OF GENEVA 316

Origin of Name— Description Natural Features Area Population Land
Office Patents — Early Settlers— Official Roster.

•CHAPTER XX \ II— CITY OF LAKE GENEVA 324

First Settlers at Geneva Lake— An Historic Contest and lis Outcome — Early
Owners of Land— Taverns and Hotels Other Early Comers Religious Socle
ties Early Business Men — Schools Newspapers ICoung Men's Christian Ass..
ciation — Public Libraries— Hanks Waterworks and Electric Lights Fishing
and Navigation— Cemeteries— The Lake Shore Village and City Charters
Official Rosters — Population and Valuation.

CHAPTER XXVIII TOWN OF LAFAYETTE 349

Description— Xat oral Features Agricultural Statistics and Valuation First
Immigrants— Land Entries— Well Known Names in IM'J Official Rostov,

CHAPTER XXIX- TOWN < >F LAGRANGE. :;:,T

Natural Features s..il First l.au.l Claim Other Immigrant Arrivals Land
Entries -Prominenl Pioneer Families Valuations und i roj Statistics Popu
lation -official Roster— Churches.

CHAPTER XXX TOWN OF LINN 366

Origin of Name Area Natural Features Crop Acreages first Settlers
Official Roster.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEB XXXI -TOWN OF LYONS 372

Naming of the Town — Boundaries — Elevations — First Settlers — Immigrants
Of 1840 and Later Years — Village Of Lynns -Business : 1 1 m I Religious Interests
Village Platted— Village of Springfield: — Noteworthy Events — Statistics

Official Boster of the Town Bcliirioiis History— Postmasters.

CHAPTER XXXII— TOWN OF RICHMOND 384

Location— Natural Features— Education — The Pioneers and other Early Set-
tiers — The Nova Seotian Settlers— The Methodist Chinch— Farm Statistics

Population — Official Roster.

CHAPTEB XXXIII— TOWN OP SHARON 392

Location and Description — Crop Acreages — Population — The First Comers —
Laud Entries— Allen Grove— Noteworthy Events — Religious Societies— Official
Roster — Tillage of Sharon — Schools — Newspapers — Churches — Bank — Ceme-
tery— Towu Officers.

CHAPTER XXXIV— TOWN OF SPRING PRAIRIE K)5

Origin of Name — Primitive Condition of the Land— Streams — Land Area— Crop
Returns — Population— First Settlers* — Honey Creek— Vienna— Voree — Franklin

Early Village Business Interests —Religious Societies — Schools — Official

Roster.

CHAPTER XXXV— TOWN OF SUGAR CREEK U8

Name Derived from Local Industry— The First Settler— Other Pioneers— A
Well Known Early Tavern— Tibhets — Churches — Insurance— Land Area and
Crop Values — Population— Town Officers. Past and Present.

CHAPTER XXXVI— TOWN OF TROY I-'1

One of the Original Towns— Lakes and Water Courses— Land Area— Crop Re-
turns—Early Settlers— Village of Troy— Troy Center— Local Interests— May-
hew— Little Prairie — Adams— Official Roster.

CHAPTEB XNXYII TOWN OF WALWORTH *S7

Land Elevations— Streams— Geneva Lake— Land Area— Crop Statistics— Pop-
ulation—Early Settlers— Land Patents— Postoffices— Churches— Schools— Big
Foot Academy— Village of Walworth — Fontana — Williams Bay— Official

Roster.

CHAPTER XXXVIII TOWN OF WHITEWATER '•"'

Origin of Name Surface of the Land— Lakes and Streams— Land Area— Farm
Statistics The First Comets Land Sales — Live Stock Breeders — Official
Roster.

CHAPTEB XXXIX CITY OF WHITEWATER l,;"

Early Use of Water Power other Early Utilities— Town Organization Ad
vent of Railroads Business Enterprises Taverns and Hotels Banks and
Bankers Religious Societies Education Libraries Military History Public
Utilities Village Incorporation official Roster- Population.

CHAPTEB XL MAKEBS OF THE COUNT! ,s|

Biographical and Genealogical Notes of Early and Prominent citizens of Wal-
worth County.

BIOGRAPHICAL :,7:;

HISTORICAL INDEX

Adams 433

Agricultural Society 169

Allen's Grove 395

Art 207

Assemblymen 58, 84

Assessor of Income Tax 212

Attorneys. 1S.39 4S, 74

Attorneys from 1848 70

lt.i|it ist Societies 176

Bench and Bur 72

v,\n Foot Academy -442

Bigfoot, Chief 39

Biographical Sketches 481

Birthday of Walworth County 59

Birthplaces of Pioneers 44

Births, Early 217

Black Hawk 38

Bloomfield Center 231

Bloomfield, Town of 22»'.

Brick Clay 33

Care tor the Poor 71

Catholic Missionaries 177

Chairmen of Supervisors 87

Chicago & Northwestern it. K. iv~

Chicago, Mil. & St. P. K. It 191

chief Bigtool 30

Circull Court Clerks 92

Circuits, Judicial 56

city of Delavan 257

city of Blkhorn 286

city of Lake Genera 324

City Of Whitewater i60

Civic Societies 210

Chi j Products 33

Clerks. Couiltj 88

clerks of Cirenil Court 92

Climate 35

Colored Troops 155

Commissioner of UoadS 212

Commissioners' Journal 80

Commissioners' Records 61

Congregational Societies 177

Congressional Districts 54

Constitutional Conventions s"

Constitution, Votes on s"

Contest at Lake Geneva 16, 324

Coroners 91

county Agricultural Society 169

County Buildings 64

County Clerks vv

Connty Commissioners. First Meeting 59

County Historical Society 196

County House 71

County Judges s2

County Officers, First 59

c.Hinty Seal Located i;l

County Surveyors 98

County Treasurers sl'

Court Commissioners 82

Court, First Terra of 72

Court Bouse, Firsl 65

Court House. Present ,;s

Court Bouse, s ml 65

Creameries 217

Dairj Interests 217

I union. Town of 240

| 1,-af. Slate s. I I for _„___„ 160

Deaths, Early — 221

Delavan Churches 263

Delavan, City of 257

HISTORICAL INDEX.

Delavan Gu;irds 207

Delavan Newspapers 261

Delavan, Town of 24S

District Attorneys 92

Districts, Legislative 54

Di'ainage 31

Drainage Districts -11

Early Births 217

Early Deaths --1

Early Educational Efforts 214

Early Highways 184

Early Marriages 219

Early Teachers 214

Early Temperance Societies 209

Early Trails 1*4

East Troy, Town of - 272

East Troy Village 279

Editorship 195

Educational Convention Is"

Educational Efforts, Early 214

Eighteenth Infantry 134

Eighth Infantry 126

Electric Lines I'-'l

Eleventh Infantry 128

Elkhorn 286

Elkhorn Banks 296

Elkhorn Business Interests 295

Klkhorn Churches — 291

Elkhorn Located 64

Elkhorn Schools 293

Enlistments from Walworth 1L">

Episcopal I'. Irishes 177

Events of Note 215

Extracts from Commissioners' Iter
ords 61

Fair, the first - 169

Fifteenth Infantry 133

Fiftieth infantry 154

Fifth Battery -- ''-"-'

Fifth Infantry L25

Fifty-firs! Infanlr.x 154

Fifty-Second Infantry lot

Fire Losses 223

Fire proof Vaults 70

First and Third Batteries 122

First Assembly 58

First Cavalry 113

First Circuit, .Indies of 75

First County Officers 59

First Court House 65

First Fair 169

First Grand Jurors 73

First Heavy Artillery 120

First Infantry 124

First Petit Jurors ''■'■

First Settler 50

First Term of Court ~-

Fontana 445

Fortieth Infantry 146

Forty-eighth Infantry 152

Forty-fifth Infantry 150

Forty-fourth Infantry 150

Forty-ninth Infantry 152

Forty-second Infantry 1 (v

Forty-seventh Infantry 151

Forty-sixth Infantry 150

Forty-third Infantry 149

Fourteenth Infantry 133

Fourth Battery 122

Fourth Infantry-Cavalry 117

Franklin Postoffice H"-'

Free and Accepted Masons__ -I11

Genealogical Notes 481

Geneva Lake Contest 4(1. 324

Geneva, Town of :;"'

Genoa Junction 234

Geographical Names. 40

Glaciers 27

Grand Army of the Republic 210

Heights of Land 29

Honey Creek - •'"

Indian Names • '

Indian Occupation :;s

Indian Trails Is'

Irvin. David ''-'

HISTORICAL lNI'l V

Jail, Present U'J

Jail, Second 67

Judges S2

Judges of First Circuit 75

Judges of Probate 56, 82

Judicial Circuits 56

Jurors. First "::

Lafayette, Town of 349

Lagrange, Town of 357

Lake Geneva, City of o24

Lake Geneva Contest 46, 324

Lake Soundings 31

Lakes 31

Land, Heights of 2!»

Land Sales 51

Legislative Districts 54

Linn. Town of 366

Literature 2iM

Little Prairie 433

Location of County Seat 64

Location of Walworth County 53

Losses by Fire 223

Lutheran Churches 17s

Lyons, Town of 372

Lyons. Village of :!7.">

Makers of the County 481

Marriages, Early — 1'-»

Marshes 30

Masonry 210

Mayhew 432

Melodrama in Court 213

Members of Assembly 84

Memorable Season 36

Methodist Churches 178

Military Academy 168

Military History 1"!

Milwaukee & Mississippi R. R 1st;

Mounds 39

Natural Products :;:;

Nineteenth Infantry 134

Ninth Battery 122

Ninth Infantry 127

Normal School ii;i;

Noteworthy Events 215

Noteworthy Institutions 15S

Nova Scotinn Settlers 387

Officers, First County :.:i

Official Roster 7n

Old Settlers' Socletj .__ 193

Oratory 208

Original Towns 54

Peal 33

Pioneer Sketches 1M

Political Organization 53

Political Parties !>7

Political Representation 58

Poor Farm 71

Prairies 30

Pre-glacial Epoch L'o

Presbyterian Churches 177

Present Court House 68

Present Jail <>'.»

Presidents of Agricultural Society- 172

Probate Judges 56. 82

Public Schools IT'.i

Railways i 85

Ratio of Votes i"i

Records of Commissioners 61

Registers of Deeds 93

Relics 39

Religious organizations 17C

Representatives 58

Kb in I. Town of .'.si

Loads and Load -ma I; lng__« lsl

Rock Liver 80

Lock Strata 26

Sii I Commissioners, Work of 180

School for Deaf 160

HISTORICAL INDEX.

s.-i i Cavalry 114

Second Court House 05

Second Infantry 124

Second Jail. 67

Senators 83

Settlement of .Northwest 42

Settler, the First 50

Seventeenth Infantry 134

Seventh Battery 122

Seventh Infantry 125

Sharon, Town of . 302

Sharon, Village of 400

Sheriffs 90

Sixteenth Infantry 134

Sixth Battery 122

Sixtli Infantry 125

Sixth Wisconsin Infantry 104

snow Blockade 30

Soldiers' .Memorial Roll 112

Son- Writers 205

Spanish-American War 156

Speculative spirit 212

Spring Prairie, Town of 403

Springfield, Village of 377

State Normal School 166

Slate S.hoo! for I leaf 160

state Senators 83

Sugar Creek, Town of 4is

Superintendents of Poor and Insane... 95

Superintendents of Schools 94

Supervisors, Chairmen of s~

Surface of County 20

Surveyors 1 93

Swamp Lands 30

Teachers, Early 214

Tompci.inie Societies 209

Tentir Battery „_ 123

Tenth Infantry—: — 127

Third Cavalry 116

Third Infantry '. 125

Thirteenth Battery 123

Thirteenth Infantry 129

Thirtieth Infantry I 13

Thirty-eighth infantry 146

Tidily fifth Infantry 144

Tinny first Infantry 143

Thirty-fourth Infantry 144

Thirty-ninth Infantry ltd

Thirty-second Infantry 143

Thirty-seventh Infantry 145

Thirty-sixth Infantry 144

Thirty-third Infantry 144

Timber 34

Town of I'.loomtield 220

Town of Darieu 24l>

Town of Delavan 248

Town of Bast Troy 272

Town of Geneva 31G

Town of Lafayette -">4!>

Town of Lagrange 357

Town of Linn 366

Town of Lyons 372

Town of Richmond 3S4

Town of Sharon 392

Town of Spring Prairie 405

Town of Sugar Creek 41S

Town of Troy 126

Town of Walworth t.:7

Town of Whitewater I'd

Treasurers, County 89

Troy Center . 431

Troy Drainage Ditch 211

Troy. Town of 426

Troy Village '- 430

Turtle Creek Drainage District 211

Twelfth Infantry 129

Twentieth Infantry 135

Twenty-eighth Infantry 130

Twenty-fifth Infantry i L39

Twenty-fourth infantry 13!>

Twenty-ninth infantry 143

Twenty-second Infantry 135

Twenty-seventh infantry 139

Twenty-sixth infantry 139

Twenty-third Infantry L39

Vaults, County 70

Henna 110

Village of Eas( Troj 279

Village of Lyons 375

Village of Sharon h">

Village of Springfield -"'77

Village of Troy 430

HISTORICAL [NDEX.

Voree . 410

Votes on Constitution 80

Votes, Ratio of 10]

Walworth County, Location 53

Walworth County Agricultural So-
ciety 16!)

Walworth County Soldier and Sailors'

Association 111

Walworth. Town of 487

War Meetings 107

Water Courses 30

Whitewater, City of 160

Whitewater, Town of i~>i

Williams Bay 146

Wisconsin Centra) R. E 189

Wisconsin Troops 107

Writers of Local History !!)!»

YerUes Observatory 158

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

Abbott, Francis X 655

Abell, Stephen B S06

Ackley, Albert H 1136

Adkins, Henry DeL 59S

Adsit, Miley '■''■"''

Agern, John 750

i. Francis G 1119

Allen, George 914

Allen, George R vr'T

m, John S S53

. Walter 913

Allvn. Alexander IT 1046

Alr'ick, A. K 12T9

Utenburg, Charley E 1 I |s

Amborn, Anion H 954

Ames. Erastus H 1":;'

Andrus, Francis T 1005

Arnold, Cassius F '-'Is

Atkinson, Josephus 1 ' '-'

Ayer, Edward E 1 |v:>

Ayers, Henry W ,;|s

•k. James w.

er, Charles II

i: er, Harvey

B ker, Louis C '■'7:;

Baker, S'u n F 1406

Barfield, Josiah n ";

Barker, D. B. 1 IT'

B: Dwight B 924

Barnes, Henry D l,l":

Barrett,]

Bartholomew, Arthur H 1435

Baumann, B. J ''",

Baumbach, William, Jr l"sl

Beach, Benjamin H

I-., ch, William W 1382

Bciirdsley, Hern !,

Albert 1351

kwith, Albert i '. :'";;

■s, Willi. mi 1437

Hiram s. 1072

Bennett, Francis A. I 159

Beseeker, Charles <> L0

Best, William F ,;,;'

Bill, Benjamin .1 90S

Bilyea, Clarence E.. - v,;l

Bhn kman, Charles VI. ss"

Bloi dg I, Fred R. 1205

in, F. -I. '•"•'■':'

Bollinger, Daniel "-"

Bollinger, Jacob ss:'

788

i. John W.

Boyle, Henry ' 1:;:;

hazou, Charles S. '"',

Bradley, Henrj :,v:'

Bradley, William W

Brennan, John C. (;-'

Brett, James E

Briggs, Herman A ' ' '-'

Brigham, Emerson A. 1283

tol, C. R. 941

H r '-""

Brown, Albert '•'•''-'

,. Emerj J.

Brown, George W. '308

Brown, James, Jr. ' ,sl

Brown, Lewis G.

Brown, William C

Brown, William v:;'

Bin i i i r: nklin A. " '

II, Henry C '■'"'•

Bullock, Arthur G.

Bm o y\

Burdlck. Hugh A. " >■"■

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

Burgit, James D 1450

Burns, Carlos H 1407

Burton, Charles R 1355

Burton, John E 100S

Busbman, John M79

Camp, James II 70L

Campbell, Lewis A 1075

Carey, Julian M 668

Ceylon Court 004

Chapin, John 652

Chatfield, Seneca B 997

i ihlld, James 142:;

( Ihristie, George 13:27

Church, Cyrus 933

Church, Leonard C 1136

Church, Ray C S95

Clancey, Lawrence 1452

Clark, Charles M 1192

Clark. John D 138S

( 'line, Leopold 1104

Clohisy, Arthur 730

Coates, Oscar 1' 1399

Cobb, Robert C 636

Coburn, Addison A 1 ^u 1

Cocroft, Harry E 688

Cocroft, Joseph E 698

Colbo, John 845

Colburn, Archibald 822

Conley, Stephen E 966

Conry, Bernard 958

Cook, l>. S. 127]

look. Franklin J 1471

Cock. Lewis L 1263

Cook. Seymour A (175

Cooley, Rufus 1256

Coon, Harlow \1. 1310

Cooper, Charles S 1321

Cowles, Elmer E 1070

Cowles, Fred D 1036

Cox, William J i__1282

Crandall, George B 875

Crane. E. .1. limo

Crites, J. L 1457

Crumb, George A 1274

Crumb, Russell E 896

Curran, .lames s < >s i

< lurtls, Levi is L363

Curl is, Walter 076

Cusark, Frank 681

Cusack, John 1481 >

Cusack, M. E . 134S

Dalrymple, Hilas H 950

Dalton, Henry J 1143

Davidson, Ebenezer iv.V2

Davis, .lames B 13(13

Davis, Ruthford D 1301

Dawley, William J 14n3

Delaney, .John W 1390

DeLong, William E 1482

Denison, Edmund D '■'.('•

Denison, John W 1228

Derthick, John II 1157

Desing, August F 734

Desing, John 749

Dewire, M. V 955

DeWitt, William H 1198

1 lickerman, Walter 1430

Dickinson, .Nathan 899

I lodge, Eugene 1170

Doolittle, .lames B 1028

Dopke, Charles II 1078

Douglass, Carlos L 1376

Douglass, Carlos S 1362

Douglass, Horace G 574

Drake, Brewster B 1029

Dunham, David T lis::

Dunham, George. 991

I Minn. Edward K 836

1 num. Patrick 1069

Dunphy, John 1122

Karnes, Francis II 587

Ebert, Ferdinanl 1428

IVkerson. Willis 1) 1339

Ells. C. W 1280

Ells. F. W 1280

Ells, George W 852

Ellsworth, Fred L 1379

Ellsworth, Stewart D 1383

I'.iigeliretsen. Edward lL'l'l

Erwin, William A 840

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

Faiivhild, Daniel 710

Faircbild, David L 1163

Fairchild, Nelson 713

Featherstone, Marshall M F'.'-'t;

Febry, William 855

Fellows, Theodore A 715

Fellows, Timothy H L_ 703

Ferry, Chester A 1019

Fish, Charles R 11S1

'Fish. Howard E 1319

Fish, Jasper M 816

Fish. .Silas B 1090

Flack. John G 791

Fleming, Charles G 1148

Foote. Lucien A 68 1

Foster, Asa 1369

Fountaine, Charles 13S7

Francis, Henry :i|>

Francisco, Newton O IT-"1

Fraser, Alexander 1444

Fraser, James W 1447

Freeman. Arthur H 1022

French, Charles S 825

Frey, Jacob C 1113

Frieker, Alfred H ' 819

Fryer, John H 1218

Funic, John L 1440

Gage, Charles H si^

Garbutt, John 810

Gates, Charles M ^-,;

Gavin, James L 805

Gibbs, Charles B L232

Gifford, Ezra 642

Goelzer, John sss

Goff, Sidney C :''-':'

Gould, Jay B 1340

Graydon, John R ' 154

Greene, Charles P ' '"'•'

Greene, Porter . 1358

Grunewald, John ^:;:'

Hat's. Andrew \V.
Hall, John

|S.,

93S

Halverson Bros. Co 1240

Halverson, G 1240

Halverson, 11. L 1241

Halverson, M. G 1240

Halvorsen, II. T 668

Hamilton, Herbert O 1276

Hammersley, William II., Sr 848

Hanson, Albert M 1208

Harmon, William 1401

Harrington, George L 872

Harrington, Grant D 1062

Harris, John H 000

Hatch, Hobart M 687

Hatch, Seymour ft 708

Hawes, I.. Edmund 1216

Heagman, Albert S 1352

Helling, Carl 1394

Henderson, John F 1264

Henn, Frank L 905

Hennessey, James 992

Hibbard, Elijah T 865

Higbee, William S 963

Higgins, Francis M 789

High, Charles 706

Hitchcock, Amos H - 1243

Hodges, William 1 121

Hoffman, John II 640

Hoge, aii..-i 1 712

Holcomb, Willis P 1083

Hollister, G. Hart 1139

Hollister, J. J 1203

lb, IN. way. W. V; B 659

Holmes, Russell ''-'■'•

Honian, Bartholomew 643

Hooper, Edmund J r,s|

Host, Ernest J U45

Host, Walter R 680

Hubbard, Frank A 1127

Hurey, George W 1285

Ilnth II. nth 1472

Hutton, Co,, iirc 1366

[ngalls, Jerome l|,;,;

Infills, Join, I' U85

S,l, It"

[saac, Morris 1149

[ves, Clinton F. :'n|

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

Jennings, John T 731

Johnson, David D 112S

Johnson, Edgar M 1088

Johnston, William H 844

Kachel, John C 1215

Kachel, T. A 1219

Kellogg, George O 727

Kendrick, Ansel H 1049

Kimball, Henry 686

Kimball, Lewis A 672

King, Oscar A 149]

Kinne, Edward 1261

Kinyon, William C 630

Kiser, F. Henry 1204

Ki slmer. George 1286

Kizer, Fernando C 1230

Kline. Philip 959

Kneiert, diaries 1002

Kniep, Peter 1477

Knutson, Knute G 1007

Kohn, John "::•_'

Kohn, Lawrence C Tin

Kohn, Phillip IT 747

Koeppen, William ini'

Krahn, August 1195

Krause, August 697

Kroenke, Carl F 1458

Krohn, Bernhard A 1026

Hull. Andrew 592

Knll. Charles J 798

Knl I. Grover 1116

Knll, .T.'lm M 1079

L
I i l:.ir, Daniel E L039

i ickey, Thomas 129S

Ladd, i>ren E 923

Lake, Elder Phipps W 936

I nl e ■ iem < i Sanitariums 1490

Lav I rles 7S4

Lawson, Frank E 813

Lawson, John 891

Lawton, Herbert X 1020

■ ' Roberl J 751

Lean. Thomas E 1209

Ledger, Walter E 092

Lindsay, H. E 1210

Lockwood, William H 832

Long, Hugh D 878

Loomer, Isaac S 1191

Loveland, Treasure K 1397

Lowell, Angevine D 980

Luedtke, August 620

Lyon, Jay F 576

McCabe, ciiarles 1316

m.i ai.e. Richard 131 S

McDougall, John S 800

McKenzie, Frank 1 163

McKinney, A. E 871

M. Milieu. Robert G 1269

Maas, Jacob 1096

Mack, diaries W 1391

Halany, Legrand F 1162

Mallory, Henry I 1123

Malsch, Fred—! s;:i

Malsch, Herman ~s7

Markel, William J 906

Mail in, .Miss Helen 612

Martin. James 'I" L0I

Massey. William E 682

Matheson, Alexander E 654

Matheson, Donald F 1373

Matheson, John 645

Watteson, Cyrua A 826

Mayer, John 1403

Mayhew, Milton M 842

Maxon, Austin C 1331

Maxon, .Jesse G 1335

Maxon, Nathan D 1040

Meadows, John G 1115

Means, James loo I

Meister, enslave 618

Melges, August- i

Mereness, Clarence v:'"

Mereness, llemau 799

Merwin, George II

Millar. Edward 920

Miller, Edward 701

BIOGR APHICAT. INDEX.

MiUer, Louis 1243

Miller. William 1 1131

.Mills. OTlin H 1455

Mitchell, Benjamin F 846

Mitchell, John 143S

Mohr. Henry 918

Moore, Frank S 793

Moran, Martin 856

Morgan, John I 965

Morrison, Smith B 742

Morrissey, Maurice 1 165

Mott, Alfred SS6

Munson, Charles H S93

Nicholas, Father James 624

Nichols, Levi A 594

Nokes, Albert J 879

Norris, Harley C 1084

North, Charles H 638

Norton. William C 1060

Nott, Charles H 1266

O'Brien, Harold X 1257

O'Dell, l.armer G 1130

O'Leary, Arthur 1446

ule 1393

■ .ti.l. Joseph II 951

e, Edward 1> L260

Page, Jay W H71

Palmer, Alexander s 910

Palmer, Byron S. 628

Palmer, Edwin E 650

Palmer, William E tin

Papenfus, Emil S64

Parker, B. Ii 1207

Passage, William T 1043

ce, George D 677

Peck, Charles i. 614

I'- k, George P 1396

Pendergast, John W 1167

rs, Edward A 1247

Peterson, Albert E. 662

Peterson, Alraon L 690

Peterson, Miss Anna Pi's

Peterson, Elmer A 1238

Peterson, Michael X L307

Peterson, Peter ptl:

Peterson, Peter <; s-i

Pelrie. Klry C- 7-1

Phelps. Sherman P .1465

Phillips, 11. 1' 917

Phillips. Lewis 1' 1024

Phillips, Volney D 1024

Pierce. II PeloS 1

Pohl, John L389

Porter, Doric C 1325

Porter, Lester C 1323

Potter, Charles E 1213

P.. Her, Charles H 862

Poller, Joseph 1 162

Powers, Richard 602

Pramer, fc'remom P 981

Price, Edwin G 691

PrudameS, Charles a 957

Puller, George E L419

Pugh, Thomas II 976

Plirdy, Perry 1.. 1269

Randall, George E 1475

Randall, William P l"77

Rauney, Perry C 987

Reader, I ■•■ i John 1342

Reader, John P. 1035

Render, J. -I 882

Redenius, -l. IP 828

Reek, -i: - S. 7ni

Reinert, Edward C 795

Reiuert, Malcb & Baumbacb L270

Rentier, John

Rej aolds, Benoni i »..

Reynolds, Ji < i;,;'

Reyuolds, Merriotl B,

i ,is. Horace S ,;l"

piiini , ■ i

Rivers, Jo '

Robers, Henrj v.

Robinson, Alh - 1 -

Rockwell, Henry- 1242

Rockwell, LeGrand, Jr - 1159

Rockwell I I Sr, U60

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

Rodawalt, Stephen 1253

Rodman, Andrew J 047

Rodman, WillanI 902

Rogers, Harold, H 1184

Romare, Oscar E 1293

Ross, Bion C SOS

Ruehlman, Christian F. W 1245

Russell, John 1054

Russell. Thomas 1054

Sage, Chancy L 1045

Salisbury, Albert 779

Schmidter, Nathaniel 1441

Schulz, Julius F. W 960

Schulz, William 1111

Schutt, Herman los7

Schwartz, John A i:;44

Seaver, William r 1346

Seymour, John V 1187

Sharp, John 1030

Shaver, Henry J 1412

Sherman, Curtis II 663

Sherman, Ervin O 889

sikes. Charles A. 894

Skeels, John G 025

skiii. Benjamin F 1182

Smith, Allien E 1140

Smith, Alfred D L370

Smith, Alfred J 616

Smith, ( barles a 1420

Smith, Airs. Elizabeth if 887

Smith, Esefc I >. 1180

Smith, Fred J.__.. 982

Smith, George II 1432

Smith, Herman F 1164

Smith, Oliver I.. :i.",i

Smith, Richard S74

Smnk. Adam 829

Snyder, John II.. Jr 583

Southwick, Oliver. P. 12S7

Southwick, William II !>71

Spaight, John I ici

Spensley, Mrs. Eliza 1337

Spensley, Robert i;::'.s

Sporbeck, G 'ge W. 1277

Sprackllng, Charles v. n. 1226

Stafford, Samuel II. 796

Stam, Joseph L295

Stanford, DeWitt 1086

Starin, Frederick J 1212

Stoneall, Joseph 695

Stopple, Herman I 1171

Stopple, Isaac. Jr 1099

Stopple, Isaac, Sr 1112

Stork, Albert 1474

Stradinger, Oottlob J 1405

Stubbs, Charles H 1117

Stupfell, .1. P. 967

Snessmilch. Ernst L. von 1173

Sumner, Charles B 11T>1

Sutherland. Herbert E 1056

Swartz, Oliver P 1468

Tappen, George T 720

Taylor, Benton B 1385

Taylor, George G 1025

Taylor, Guy M 11GS

Taylor, John H 1095

Taylor. Ora P !>7l

Taylor, William T 978

Teetshorn, Fern S 851

Terrace, Otto Y S33

Thayer, Henry E iniil

Thiele, Henry F 1222

Thomas, R. II 940

Thorpe, .lames ,i X476

Tobin, John T 1171

Trail. Ralph 1235

Tubbs, Willis J 1092

Tuft, 1 'avid 12-"i2

Turner, Thomas W 1375

Tyrrell, William H ln;,i

Filer. Clarence F 1272

Filer. John W 129]

Van siy.-k. George W 802

Van Volzer. George M 1315

\ .mVelzor. Philander K 1100

Vnitz. Herman. 1068

V.'SS, .Inllll G 1400

Voss. John 1 1 1 in

BIOGRAPHICAL [NDEX.

Wade, Henry II 1312

Wagner, John 1105

Walker, Oliver II 622

Walsh. Frank U ^,;

Walters, Eugene A 921

Walworth State Hank 820

Watrous, Edward B 1360

Weaver, Silas K 1328

Webb, Sylvester T 1179

Webster, Joseph P 1152

Weeks, -Mrs. Esther Ann 1268

AYeeks. Lewis S 1269

W.-eks. Martin W 1125

Weeks, Spencer 1107

Weeks, Wilbur G 1102

Welnhoff, Father John J 1104

Welch. John 860

Welch, Seymour II 1-:'L

Weld. John W 1248

Welsher, II. J 94:6

Wendt, Frederick 1 l-"'l

Wost. Ernest A 835

West, Frank l"-::

Wost. Mark H 1367

West, Walter A 724

Westphall, Charles D 1 1":;

Wheeler. Isaac I' 898

While. Edgar E 1296

White. Henry H 656

White, Jay II 1384

Whiting, William H 700

Wilcox. Thomas II 7::-~

Wilear, William H 1469

Ins, Albert 1' 812

Williams. Charles M 1201

Williams. Edward E 578

Williams. F. H 1233

Willi:. Mt-. Royal J L416

Williams, Thomas F !>l-

Williams. William 11. 1259

\\ iiiiamson. Andrew 1033

Wilmer, August 1 133

w ilmer, Bernard ' l-"'1

Wilmer, Charles B L427

Wilson. John G 1334

Winn, Henry 1278

Winn. John II 1003

Winter, Charles 949

Winter. Frederick C 1353

Wisconsin Butter & Cheese Co. — 590

Wiso. Jonas B s|v

Wiswell, Charles II 1233

\v ieoi c '

Wormood, Frederick E 746

Wright, Benjamin F 1313

Wright, Merrick 868

Wurth, Charles H 1"'-'l

Wyiio. George W 1426

Wylie, Herbert F 1424

Zaspel, oiio R._ ' W7

Zuiii. David E 1229

OUT-L_jrsJE; MAP OF"

WAILWSRTIK) ©©TOW, WIK

JEFFES5QIN COUNTY

state: of- illinoi:

HISTORICAL

CHAPTER I.

PRE-GLACIAL EPOCH — GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS.

A few of the more plainly told facts or statements derivable from the
state and federal geological surveys may at least provisionally account for
the present face of Walworth county. In a prc-glacial age (its beginning
and end not to be more nearly estimated in calendar years than arc Mar dis-
tances in statute miles) the rock floor of the southern tiers of Wisconsin
counties was of latest formation and uplifting from the dark waste of waters.
As to that backward-stretching segment of eternity, geology is at one with
Genesis: "The earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon
the face of the deep." At the beginning of the period called "eocene" —
morning of life — and by American writers also named Laurentian, an almost
solitary island of granite or crystalline rock's, in outline a mdely made V,
covered most of Labrador, a large part of Quebec and Ontario, and the more
northerly province of Kewatin. It had its lower point near the southern
shore of Lake Superior, and it enclosed between its arms a larger I tudson's
bay.

Apparently rent from uthern point was a much mallei md,

lying mostly within the present limits o consin, bul including pari

the upper Michigan peninsula. Thus early began the relation hip of thi
states, ending geographically and politically in [836. Besides th<

iller islands, and excepting the two relatively narrow 1 rked

the lines of the Appalachian and the Rock) Mountain systems, .-ill on tl
tinent. from Alaska to Panama. an unlighted, fishless, innavigabh

The rocky materials of the 1 Ided

and in other ways distorted by upheaval, and. perhaps, b; ub-

nce, rose to far greater heights than arc now I 1 be seen on earth. II
high they wen- is only inferred by widely varying
but uncertain depth and breadth the later sedimentary and cal

26 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

posits formed by nature's continent-making agencies, in great part, at least,
from the disintegrated and recomposed materials of those overtowering ranges
and peaks. The thickly-shrouding vapors which had long shut out the light
of sun and stars were condensed to water that gathered itself into destructive
torrents, and the acid-laden atmosphere waited like an obedient servant upon
the spirit of the flood. There were other helps doubtless, but their dim
and confused record is best translated or hypothetically explained by patiently-
observing and ingeniously-conjecturing geologists.

When the solid foundation was laid the surface of the county was left
far from even. At several points within the county borders the upper-
lying rock has been found, by measurement of deep wells, at heights above
sea level ranging say. between 480 and 870 feet — or from 100 feet below to
nearly 300 feet above the level of Lake Michigan. Great variation of
height has been found at points but a mile or less apart. The bottom of
the low-lying pre-glacial Troy valley was found at 480 to 500 feet; in East
Tro_\ and Spring Prairie at 530 to 820 feet; in Lyons and Bloomfield at 643
to 8 11 1 feel : in Troy and Lafayette at 480 to 840 feet: in Geneva and Linn at
700 to 870 feet : in LaGrange and Whitewater at (:>6^ to 850 feet; in Sugar
Creek and Richmond at 600 to 830 feet: in Darien and Sharon at 780 to
810 feel : in Delavan and Walworth at 500 to 800 feet; at Elkhorn 810 feet.
These measurements, though too few and perhaps too inexact for a sailing
chart, may show that the following glacial movements and meltings left the
surface of the county much better graded for its present uses. An ideal
column of under lying strata, as shown by the state's geologist is. in order
of til

1. Granite or crystalline rocks.

2. Huronian (iron-bearing) rocks.

3. Potsdam sandstone.

4. Lower magnesian limestone.

5. St. Peter's sandstone.

6. Trenton and < ralena limestone.

7. Cincinnati (Hudson River) shale.

8. Niagara limestone.
11. ( facial drift.

For more than one-half of the county the Niagara stratum is wanting,
and. as depicted on geological charts* a ribbon-like belt of Cincinnati shale
(dipping toward Lake Michigan 1 divides it from the Trenton and Galena
formation. The shale bell reaches from the Illinois line, by way of Linn

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 2J

and Walworth town-line, to the Troys, whence its course is toward the north
east corner of the eastern town.

It is not to be known how many ice sheets have successivel} covered
some part or all of the county's area, but the so-named Green Bay and Lake
Michigan glaciers brought the lower loop of the great Kettle moraine into
the northern part of Lagrange and Whitewater. An attendant or soon fol-
lowing offshoot of the latter-named glacier moved across Milwaukee. Wau-
kesha, Racine and Kenosha counties and the lake-shore counties of Illinois,
and formed the Valparaiso moraine, which reached from Waukesha county
to Porter county, Indiana, having Burlington in its line of invasion. A spur
or branch, now named the Delavan lobe of the Lake Michigan glacier, was
pushed across Walworth, covering most of its southern half and its north-
western quarter, and meeting the Milton and Johnstown moraines of Rock
county westward and the Marengo drift southward. Delavan lake and its
outlet divides this lobe, and hence the Darien and Klkhorn moraines. I
charts also show a conjectural Genoa moraine less plainly indicated, bul nol
improbable.

The latest and most likely greatest of these invading and overwhelming
ice sheets found here its southmost limit. The arrested mass, heavily
weighted with the abundant and various spoils of its northern conquests,
began the long period of its dissolution. As it slowly dropped its burden of
clay, sand, gravel, pebbles, and boulders its rising torrents found or forced
their outlets by the winding ways of the present creeks, the valleys of which
are now far wider than needful to carry gulfward the little floods of spring
and autumn. To the action of moving and melting glaciers is .ascribed the
sent contour of the county. It may be supposed that the irregular sur-
face of the latest rock deposits turned and in other ways affected the general
course of the glacier across the county, and that fragments of the e ocl
were borne along from the eastern side of the county to be dropped in
and counties lying some miles westward. It is even imaginable that the
tremendous force of the moving mass -tripped the western part of the
county of it- Niagara stratum, for such effeel el ewhen are attributed to
such cause. It is also possible that the Elkhorn moraine was formed later
than the parallel Darien moraine, as the melting mass presented the aspect of
a body retreating with its face to the front. x lorn

about a quarter of the county is covered with the earlier moraines, the i
terials far-brought from the north and mixed with a large portion of pebbles

and mud torn and ground from nearer-lying rocks. Something coi We

was added from the outwash of the last g I In drift deposit

28 WALWCRTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

has been found of greatly varying depth ; as at Elkhorn about 275 feet ; at
points of the Darien moraine from 400 to 600 feet; at Yerkes Observatory
(in Walworth) 405 feet; at adjacent points in southeastern Rock county
40 to 100 feet.

It can not be said with strong assurance that nature's tremendous form-
ative work is yet finished for this county. The earthquake vibration of
[908, so distinctly perceived at Chicago, Aurora, and other points not farther
away, were also felt for an instant here — barely felt, but unmistakably. It
is probable that no place between the poles, whatever its latitude, is wholly
and forever exempt from the action of cosmic or of subterranean forces,
though man very reasonably believes that this earth, if not made ex-
pressly for his home, has been made generally habitable for him. The dwel-
lers of Walworth do not as yet feel as insecure as if they had chosen their
homes at the foot of the Andes.

CHAPTER II.

SURFACE OF THE COUNTY AND OTHER NATURAL FEATURES.

At the appearance of human life the surface of the county must have
been well drained of its greater floods, its higher ridges settled and com-
pacted, and all that was not covered with water overspread with many forms
of vegetable growth — subsistence for many forms of lower animal life.
Walworth is but a small segment of the great area of the upper Mississippi
vallev and the region of the great lakes, and its superficial aspect is in most
respects that of the greatly favored belt of southern Wisconsin and northern
Illinois. There is nowhere within the county a height that, except in loose
local habit of speech, can be called a hill. Neither are there deep-lying, twi-
lighted gorges, or other features of nature in her more imposing or more
wanton character.

HEIGHTS ABOVE SEA LEVEL.

A few official barometrical measurements, in feet above sea level, may
give a fair notion of the upper and lower limits of unevenness. Railway sta-
tions, at which most of these observations were taken, are usually on lower
ground than their villages, and somewhat variable figures are shown in dif-
ferent tabulations. For instance, the height of Lake Michigan is set down
at 578 feet and also at 580 feet above sea level.

Allen Grove (old station) 871 Honev Creek (village) 816

Allen Grove (new station) .... 918 Lake Beulah I station) 825

Bardwell S07 Lake I ;ene\ a ( cit] 1 878

Darien 946 Lyons 1 station) 800

Delavan 807 Mayhew (station) 865

Duck Lake (or Lake Como) . . 848 Sharon 1028

East Troy 850 Springfield 848

Elkhorn (station) 996 Spring Prairie 920

Elkhorn (northwestern corner) [137 [>o '

Elkhorn (city) 1031 Wal >n) to

Fayettevile 864 Whitewater

leva 1 point on section 19) . . 1149 Yerkes Observatory o

Geneva Lake 852 Z ration) 9§7

30 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

PRAIRIES, OPENINGS AND FORESTS.

The prairies are nowhere boundless to the eye, and, but for small areas,
nowhere quite level or greatly rolling! The primitive forests, with tangled
undergrowth, reached no great distance backward from the margins of
lakes and banks of creeks. Timber-openings limited and were limited by
the prairies, and this both agreeably and usefully to pleasure-loving and
profit-seeking man. The barren gravel knolls are few and conveniently
distributed. The marshes were usually small, and several of these have
been drained. The largest was that part of Honey Creek valley locally
known as Troy marsh, in southern sections (square miles) of that town:
and Turtle Creek marsh, in the eastern sections of Richmond.
Both of these have contracted their area and both will soon be added
to the acreage of dairy land. Pursuant to an act of Congress.
September 28. 1850, relating to reclamation of swamp and overflowed lands
unfit for cultivation, a patent signed by President Pierce, December 13,
1856, granted to Wisconsin all such lands remaining unsold at passage of
that act. Proceeds of sales from these lands are invested for the benefit of
the State University. Tracts of this description selected in Walworth
count) were in the following named towns:

liloomfield, parts of sections S, 24 'i6o acres

East Troy, parts of sections 13, 14 80 acres

Lafayette, parts of sections 4, 8 281.28 acres

Lyons, part of section 29 40 acres

Richmond, parts of sections 22, 23, 24, 26 1200 acres

Sugar Creek, parts of sections 19, 20, 21 443-1 acres

Whitewater, part of sections 34, 35 80 acres

2284.38 acres

WATER COURSES.

Rock river, flowing southward through the county of the same name,
and thence to the Mississippi, and Fox river, flowing in like direction to the
same destination through the counties of Racine and Kenosha, receive all
the drainage of Walworth. The great divide, for the most part, lies nearly
diagonally southwest and northwest, along the great moraine. Honey
creek and Sugar creek run by nearly parallel courses — the former from La-

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN. g]

grange across the Troys, thence southward to section 13, Spring Prairie,
where it joins the latter within a few rods of the county line, and meets the
Fox near Burlington. Sugar creek rises in a marsh near Richmond and
crosses the towns of Sugar Creek. Lafayette and Spring Prairie.

The outlet of Geneva lake is rather grandly named White river and is
joined in Lyons by the outlet of Duck lake, ending its crooked course at
the city of Burlington. Three streams, the west, northwest and northeasl
branches of the Nippersink, meet a little above Genoa Junction and reach the
Fox a few miles below Richmond, Illinois. The west branch conies out of
Linn, crossing and recrossing the state line. The other branches are whollj
in Bloomfield. The northeast branch is an outlet of Powers lake and its
little companion lakes, lying along the border of Kenosha county.

Most of the town of Whitewater is drained by the creek of that name.
which rises near the Richmond line, flows northward, becomes near the city
a pair of connected ponds, and, passing into Jefferson county, reaches the
Rock by way of Bark river. Turtle creek rises in Richmond, receives the
1 rharge from Delavan lake outlet, crosses Darien (leaving the count) near
Allen Grove), finds its way to the Rock near Beloit, having crossed the
towns of Bradford and Turtle. More than one half of the drainage of
Elkhorn reaches the Turtle by way of Delavan lake inlet and outlet. The
inlet has but a short course, in northern Geneva and Delavan, south of Elk-
horn, and among its names have been Wallings, Phillips, and Jackson's creek.
Straight southward through Sharon and near its eastern line runs the
Piskasaw, which crosses the state line, traverses McHenry and B01
counties to merge itself in the Rock in southeastern Winnebago. Thus by
;t- streamlets, once mighty glacial torrents, Walworth is joined to all the
oceans between pole and pole.

LAKES AND TI! EIB 01

The lake region of southeastern Wisconsin includes the counties of
Dane, Jefferson, Kenosha. Racine, Walworth and Waukesha. The larg
of the Walworth lakes are Geneva, Delavan, the Lauderdale group,
and P.eulah, all of which have been made known beyond the county
borders, by the tongues and pens of men, Mad Longfellow been provi-
dentially guided to one or all of fhese lake- he mighl have added plea antly,
if not greatly, to his "poems of places." He may have felt thai local pi
have rightly some precedence here, and these well bel od 'he lyric

muse have neither i : nor flagrantly abused their heaven-senl opp

32 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

tunities. The other lakes, in impartial order of alphabet, are: Army, Bass,
Booth, tun <''>ii]i>>. 1 1 olden' s, Lulu, Mud, Pell's, Pleasant, Potter's, Rus-
sell's (or Otter), Ryan's, and Silver. Of these, Pleasant is associated in
many minds with the Lauderdale chain, and Army, Booth and Mud with
Beulah. Power's lake, in Kenosha county, has one long shore, with enough
water to keep its pebbles clean, in Bloomheld. A smaller lake (Middle) has
an end in Bloomfield and a third (Lower) is wholly in that town, and these
two lead the waters of Powers to the Nippersink.

As far as is known to the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History
Survey, of all the inland lakes of the state, the deepest is Green lake, in the
county of that name, jjj feet. The next deepest is Geneva lake, and in the
clearness and coolness of its water it has no rival. Its surface is 860 feet
above sea level, ami 282 feet above Lake Michigan. Its length is about seven
and live-eighths miles and its area 8.6 square miles. Its very variable width is
shown by the table below, the results of nearly six hundred soundings taken
on nine lines measured across the ice from shore to shore. The length of
these lines and the deepest sounding along each are thus given, beginning near
the head 01" the lake :

Miles Feet Deep

Marengo Park to Fresh Air Association 1.3 102.7

Cook's Camp to Camp Collie 1.1 142.0

1 ok's Camp to Williams Bay Pier 2.0 '40.7

I 'ark to Cedar Point 1.1 123.3

Across mouth of Williams Bay 0.8

Black Poinl to Cisco Bay 1.1 ui.o

\t the Narrows 0.5 75.4

I'oii' , in. a little west of Button's Bay. .. . 1.4 71.5

Vlanning's Poinl to opposite shore 0.8

! lelavan lake is nearh three and three-fourths miles long and its average

widl iurths of a mile. Its ar.-a is j.7 square miles. It> great-

ei 1 known depth is 56 7 feet. For the greater part of its area it is more than

feel deep and little of it 1.'-- than ten to twenty feet.

The measurements and computations for Beulah ami its companion

are shown thus:

Booth Lake Greatest depth. 25.4 feet; area. 125 acres

Beulah Lake —

Upper Greatest depth, 67.0 feet; area. 260 ai

Hind Greatest depth, 40.0 feet: area. [GO acres

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 33

Lower ( Nearest depth, 54.2 feet ; area, 550 acres

Mill Greatest depth, 51.5 feel ; area. 6i ai

East Troy Lake (Army) Greatest depth, [6.8 feet; area, 8] acres

Similar tabulation for the Lauderdale chain shows:

Green Lake Greatest depth, 56.8 feel ; area, 282 acres

Middle Lake Greatest depth, 50.0 feet; area. 282 acres

Mill Lake Greatest depth, 50.0 feet : area. 304 ai

These officially surveyed lake-- have been of no inconsiderable economic
value to the county. Their attractions for summer visitors do not as yet
wither or grow stale, and their influence on the valuation of adjacent real
estate is evident.

NATURAL PRODUCTS.

Stone crops out occasionally along the hank- of creeks, but little quarry-
ing has been found profitable. Cobblestones and boulders were strewn, not
thickly, as in the rugged farther-east, but not difficult to gather, in the first
half century of white man's needs, for wells and foundation walls. The
lake shallows and creek bottoms supplied much of this homely but readily
available material. A large three-storied hotel was early built at East Troy
of little more than fist-sized pebbles, and seems time-defying; and a wayside
inn, now a sober and substantial dwelling, was built at Tibbets before rail-
ways came this way, of gravel and lime mortar.

Brick clay of variable quality has been found and used from an early
date, making a substantial, though often homely article for home builders.
The best is that at Whitewater, its bricks having the color and hardness of
the cream-colored product which once made Milwaukee famous. Generally,
the bricks from other kilns vary in color from grayish yellow to dull light
red. Drain tiles have been made for home trade for perhaps a quarter-
century.

Beds of peat have been worked in the valley of Whitewater creek, but
without great influence upon the fuel market. Deposits of
here and there have been worked experimentally, and for a time have raised
some hopes in the minds of owners. The one great, unfailing, earth-hidi
resource is spread over all the town-, at plowing depth belov ur-

face.

(3)

34 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN

TIMBER.

There was nothing peculiar to this county in its native trees, shrubs,
vines, medicinal herbs and weeds. Oaks of the black, burr, pin, red and
white varieties were by far the most numerous and widely spread, and hence
most valuable; and these gave their distinctive character to the timber open-
ings, so inviting to the early comers. Other trees and shrubs were black and
white ash. basswood, birch, black cherry, black walnut, butternut, red and
white cedar, crab apple, cranberry, hazel, hickory, ironwood. locust, curly
and sugar maple, plum, poplar, sumach, tamarack and willow. The oaks,
at fir>t piled for cabin walls and split for fencing and fuel, were but little
later hewn for long-lasting framework of houses, barns, mills, churches and
county buildings, and sawed into scantling, joists, inch boards, and half-inch
siding; and when railways brought in a full supply of pine lumber the older
trees became the general source of firewood. Some of these fallen lords of
the ancient forest may have been thrifty shoots as long ago as the voyages of
Columbus and Cartier, and many of them must have been acorn-bearers when
Nicolet came down Rock river valley from the further north, in 1634. A
few are vet living, seemingly as slow in their dying as in their growing.
White oak and hickory gave excellent materials to the local wagon makers.
The earlier joiners found in black walnut a fair supply of easily worked lum-
ber for inner finish of houses. Since it was taken as it ran through the mills —
unselected — its color was slightly improved by painting.

The settlers early became forest conservators, and there has been little
wanton or accidental destruction. The needs of pioneers and the later fuel
supply of farmers and villagers nearly exhausted the dead timber and the older
living trees within the first thirty years. For a few more years the oaks of
sec. md grow tli gave firewood at a steadily rising price. Thus, good wood,
often in over-full cords, was sold in [856 at $2.25 to $2.50; in 1866, in even
cords, at $4.50 to $5: in 1876, in scant cords, at $5.50 to $6; in 1896, in
loads of dead trunks and dynamite-split stumps, a scant supply at $6. Coal
began to come into general use after 1X70. and is now. with coke, kerosene.
and gasoline, for kitchen use. the only fuel available for such as do not own

a thriftily managed w 1 lot. There are yet many fair-looking and valuable

grows of trees from six to eight or more inches in diameter, but the fortu-
nate owner- are able to withold the axe for yet a generation to Come. For
that space of time, at least, the county will be far from treeless, as the yearly
growth seems to lie gaining on the few cutters.

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN. 35

CLIMATE.

The climate of Wisconsin is probably modified by the presence of the
great lakes northward and eastward and by the absence of great wind breaks
east of the Rocky mountains. The prevailing winds of winter which give
that season its most familiar character, blow from the arc between southwest
and north, strongly and keenly. Winds from the lakes are much less frost-
laden. Snow and rain come from every point of the compass-card. Sudden
changes of weather often surprise wary observers and are more trying than
greatest heat or cold. The prevailing winds, which make winter so cruel,
compensate in the warmer seasons }>\ driving away such miasmas as arise
from the shrinking marshes. The fevers of the prairie-breaking period have
disappeared and have made way for the disorders of riotous or careless living.
Pulmonary and bronchial diseases are not so common as might be judg
likelv from the general weather conditions. The few epidemics are speedily
limited in severity and duration by the local physicians and boards ol health.
As long ago as 1857 a physician described the region in which he practiced
as "distressingly healthy." and this could have been said as truly of the resl
of the county.

The summers are variable as to length and temperature, but may be de-
scribed as short and hot. There is more complaint of drouth than oi ex-
cessive rain, both of which have been known to spoil the farmer's year; but
in general the crops grow to fullness and ripen well 111 spite of prophetic
fears. Untimely frosts, too, sometimes threaten or injure the sproul or the
unripe ear. The late Robert T. Seymour said, about [876, that he had been
twenty-three years in the county and had gathered twenty-one good crops
of corn.

In [859 and 1863 ii was noted that there was in each of these years at
least one frosty night in each month. A man who seemed nol overcredul
remarked that a friend had heard Solomon Juneau say that an aged Menomi-
nee had told him that such years had occurred quadrennially in southeastern
Wisconsin for a period reaching as far backward- as [743. Bui neither
1867 nor any subsequent year before leap year has confirmed this simple rule
of forecasting a season. The summer of [859, for all it- monthly frost, was
generally hot and dry. The summer of I'M 1. until near the end of August,
was warm and dry. and the firsl week of July was superheated in city and
country. In July and August pipe-layers found tl loist enough

to hold together in spadefuls at the depth of six feet. Then began, in time
to save the crops, short local shower-, increasing throughout September and

36 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

October in frequency and duration, and so restored the normal moisture that
the surface soil is likely to withstand, if need be, another series of dry sum-
mers.

Mr. Dwinnell noted that the winter of 1836-7, endured in new log huts
by himself and Isaiah Hamblin in Lafayette and by James Van Slyke. wife
and child at Fontana, was cruelly cold and hard to bear. Mr. Cravath told of
five feet of snow, January to April, 1843, anc' a narc' winter. Mr. Gale arid Mr.
Simmons also thus noticed this winter. That of 1856-7 was exceptionally cold
in Michigan and Wisconsin, and the next winter, though somewhat less so,was
made trying by heavy snow and wild drifts. Builders worked out of doors
in 1857-8 nearly all winter in shirt sleeves. A heavy fall of snow, each side
of New Year's, 18H4, was blown into almost impassable drifts, and with this
such degree of cold as to make the whole month of January for long mem-
orable ; and this was but slightly mitigated in February. Among later ex-
tremely cold winters were those of 1872-3. 1874-5. 1887-8, 1894-5. That of
1875-6 was mild, and the next, or next but one, was so muddy that it was diffi-
cult to haul half-loads of produce into town. In the first week of November,
1869, about eighteen inches of snow fell in two days, and lay nearly undis-
turbed by winds until March. For one full winter sleighing was good where
(lie Hacks were well beaten.

A MEMORABLE SEASON.

The snow blockade of February ami early March, 1881, was general
throughout most of the northern states. The weather of February 10th was
unusually mild. Before daylight of the nth began a heavy snowfall, driven
slantwise at a small angle with the plane of the horizon, from the north-north-
east, and tin's continued until roads for long spaces were full from fence to
fence ami deepest railway cuts filled to their tops. New levels thus reached,
the snow was driven onward to regions of warmer air. After the first heavj
fall the air was kept full of the liner particles raised and driven by the long
unresting gale, constantlj setting at naughl the work of snow plows and of
thousands of shovelers. The fields were swept nearly bare between drifts,
lint many farmers found long and hard work between house and barn. Vil-
lages became as pett) sovereignties with a policy of non-intercourse. Resides,
before the ways were again opened there was reasonable dread of a soon-
COHling want of flour and fuel. For nearly a month mails were stopped
Then, having been notified by telegraph that an accumulation of tie-sacks had
reached Eagle from Chicago, by wa\ of Milwaukee, the postmaster at Elk-

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN. tf

horn, March 8th, swore in Daniel Lennon as special carrier and sent him out
by two-horse bob-sled to find his way and flounder through it as best he
might. He returned in twelve hours, himself and team greatly way-worn;
Mr. Bradley distributed mail all night, and men received their del.: eel

and their newspapers which had become back numbers. Railway travel was
practically suspended about three weeks.

The only employment for young men was as volunteer shovelers in the
nearer railway cuts. They soon discharged themselves with blistered faces
and necks, and eyes for some days blinded from the reflected heat and glare
of the sun in the snow pits. Older or less active men, finding home a cage,
wallowed through drifts and fought with the gale to reach hotel, saloon or
store and soon found the fireside gossip there stale and outworn tor want of
new material.

Nicholas Donoghue died about March ist and his body lay unburied for
a week or more. Isaac Burson died March 5th, at a hotel, and his body lay
more than fortv-eight hours before it could be taken to his relatives, two
and one-half miles away, toward Delavan. These few instances may show
the effectiveness of this historic blockade.

When the snow no longer filled the air and shovelers began t<> make
some way through the drifts, men hoped that as the slowly creeping month
neared the equinox the sun would prevail against the long winter. But, on
the 19th, the storm returned to Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. It seemed tin-
same snow, driven from the same quarter at the same angle by the same ill-
intending wind. It was mid-April before all the highways opened. Neat the
end of May the slowly-melting snow and lower ice lingered in such places as
the hollow next west of the church near Jacobsville.

CHAPTER III.

INDIAN OCCUPATION MOUNDS AND RELICS GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES.

At the coining of Jean Xicolet in 1634 to Green bay and thence by way
of Rock river to the Mississippi, Wisconsin was well occupied by Chippewas,
Maskoutens, Menominees (Folles Avoines, or wild rice eaters), Outagamis,
Pottawattomies, Sauks, Winnebagos, and remnants of other Indian tribes.
Whatever had been their previous inter-tribal relations, the presence and
influence of the soon-following French missionaries, traders, and garrisons
tended somewhat to make the wars of these tribes less frequent. As far as
this condition was brought about at all. it was done, in great part by arraying
the natives against the English as their common enemy. Charles Langlade
led his Indians and French half-breeds to their share in Braddock's defeat, and
in 1760 to the defense of Montreal.

A few years after Xew France was no more, British agents directed
native hostility against the American settlers in the old Northwest Territory as
the advance guards of the real and forever-encroaching wrongers of the Indian.
Though after the Revolution the titles of the tribes, from eastern Ohio to
farther Iowa and Missouri were slowly extinguished by wars and by treaties,
for yet a half-century after the peace of 1783 the settlers of Illinois and Wis-
consin were not secure from the terrors of Indian outbreak. The motley de-
scendants of Langlade, with their full-blooded Indian friends, fought against
Hai-mar. St. Clair and Wayne, in Ohio, and at Tippecanoe and in the war
oi 1812-15 they found work for their too willing hands. By a treaty at Fort
Harmar, July 9, 1789, General Harrison acting in behalf of the United States,
the chiefs of the Sauks and Pottawattomies ceded the district lying be-
tween the Fox and the Mississippi, which included about two tiers of Wis-
consin counties. Black Hawk, always hostile, denied the right of the chiefs
i" give or sell the lands of the tribes. I lis foolish undertaking, in [832, ended
in defeat and expulsion of himself and his always intractable tribe, and Indian
war was no longer possible on this side <>\ the Mississippi. He had received
some delusive encouragement from the Winnebagos of Rock River valley,
who may have hoped for him some partial or temporary success while they
dared not help him openly. It does not appear that the Pottawattomies lis-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 39

tened to his plans, nor that they greatly shared his blind hatred of white men.
Their own landlord rights had been signed away at Fort llarmar, and
the event of the war with England had left them no hope of recovery of their
ancient domain by trick or force. This county had been a part of their
patrimony from white man's earliest knowledge. They had at least three
villages, as late as the coming of the surveyors who staked the corners of
townships and sections, along the shores of Geneva lake. Bigfoot. one of
their chiefs, had his village near the site of Fontana, and there was one at
Williams Bay, and another at the foot of the lake. There had been a village
on each side of Delavan lake, one at Whitewater, ami part of the tribe hov-
ered on the eastern line of the county, near Burlington. Squaws had broken
ground and raised corn before white men came with plow and hoe and they
boiled maple sap in the valley of Sugar creek. They lingered until [837 l>e-
fore following the westering trail of most of their race. Bigfool had no eon
suming love for the evicting white men, and less for their ways of life, but
he was wise and prudent enough to comply with the terms of the treaty which
had, in effect, given his hunting grounds to the plow and his fishing places to
tourist-laden steamers. It is told of him that he asked of a friendly new-
comer that the graves of two of his wives and a son should be respected, and
that on that occasion he gave way to much like a Caucasian's emotion. The
earlier settlers at Geneva, Spring Prairie, and Whitewater saw the disappear-
ance of these several links between historic and pre-historic Wisconsin.

MOUNDS AND RELICS.

Among relics, left for a short time, of the older occupancy were a lew-
mounds of a period which has left no other sign — a period antedating oldesl
Algonquin tradition. One of these, lizard-shaped, with legs outspread, tail
turned northwardly, was at the flat-iron point of Main and Lake streets, Lake
Geneva. It was fifty to eighty feet long, ten to twelve feet wide, and two to
three feet high. A large oak stump at its top gave a partial hint of it- age.
Little more than a block westward was a larger mound, also lizard-shaped, with
longer tail. Both heads were near the water'- edge. About the head of the
lake were other mounds, in size and shape not easily determinable, and cov-
ered with woodland growth. On section 31, town of Geneva, between the
lakes of Geneva and Como, was a bow-and-arrow shaped earthwork. This
monument of a forgotten race was alreadj badly in need of the "restorer's
ingenious art. It was eighty to ninet) feel Ion- and it- form was thai ol a
bent bow with arrow ready tor flight toward the larger lake, as if unseen

4° WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

bowmen lay forever in wait for unwary or daring trespassers. A little west-
ward from the city of Whitewater, on the crest of a bluff, was an oblong
mound measuring sixty-five feet from north to south, twenty feet wide, and
at its middle about five feet high. Less than a half mile northeasterly were
three conical mounds, about twenty-five feet across and nearly seven feet
high. Besides these ancient works there were a few smaller burial mounds
about the count)-, not older than the French dominion. This was shown by
the contents, which included medals, buttons and trinkets of French make.—
all taken by irreverent white despoilers from these family vaults. Stone and
flint weapons and articles used in the lodges have been found and are yet
occasionally found on or but slightly below the surface, in field and wood-
land, everywhere about the county. Intelligent local collectors have especially
noticed the abundance of these relics on both sides of Delavan lake.

It was for long a reasonable conjecture that the several low mounds on
and about the Lake Lawn farm conceal evidences of pre-historic occupation
of the shores of Delavan lake. In March, 1911, Ernest F. and Chester W. Phil-
lips began to trench across mounds on the family property, and with much
labor and persistence verified, at one point, the general surmise. At seven
feet downward they reached an oblong pit, seven by nine feet, carried about
two feet farther down into a stratum of loose gravel. The pit was floored
with loose cobble-stones made even with sand, and its walls were also of loose
stones in the way of skillful well diggers. Two skeletons sat in opposite
corners, and twelve more were laid or piled between; but no relics of other
kind had been placed there, nothing to hint that they were killed in battle,
sacrificed to the gods of their enemies, drowned while the lake spirit was in
angriest mood, or swept away by swiftly marching pestilence. A local paper
remarked truly: "The finding of these bones affords rare play for the imag-
ination." The pit had been filled with loose earth, and a covering of clay
baked from the top to something like the hardness of brick. The mound.
rounded above all. is about forty feet across and four feet high. It is probable
that the State Archaeological Society will in its own time describe with exact-
ness and fullness, and will deduce with scientific care and conclusiveness.

GEOGR \ T ■ 1 1 Ic \I. NAMES.

One relic of the long Algonquin occupation is all but absent, that of
Indian names on the county maps. Only Nippersink and Piskasaw have been
so preserved, and these, without doubt, in such clipped and weakened forms
as no Algonquin purist, trying to restore or re-create the classic dialects and

WALWORTH COUNTY; WISCONSIN. 41

literature of his people, could accept as better than "pidgin" Indian. Seme >i'
the fathers of the county learned a few of the less difficult Pottawattomie
words for familiar objects, but did not permanently enrich the pioneer speech
with these graceful or vigorous terms. Bigfoot's English name was for a very
short time given to his lake; but better taste prevailed, and his only monu-
ment on the map is but a four-corners postoffice on the Illinois side of a state-
line road, south of Walworth, though the adjacent prairie in that town is still
so named locally.

The natives had named most of the lakes and creeks, and the present
names are translations or paraphrases of the Pottawattomie or other original
terms. But there were alternative forms of a few of these names, as if there
had been difference of dialect or other circumstance. A few of these uncouth
names have been preserved, though with some doubt as to accuracy of their
spelling :

Bigfoot — Mang-go-zid, Muh-mang-go-zid, Mu-sha-o-zet, Mauk-suek,
Mauk-soe, Pok-toh, Ke-che-sit.

Duck Creek — She-sheip-se-pee.

Duck Lake — She-sheip-bess.

Geneva Lake — Gee-zhich-qua-wauk, Kish-wau-ke-toe, Gee-zihig-wau-
gid-dug-gah, Kish-wau-keak.

Honey Creek — Mish-qua-woc, Ah-moo-sis-po-quet-se-pee.

Sugar Creek — Sis-po-quet-se-pee.

Swan Creek — Wau-ba-shaw-se-pee.

Swan Lake — Wau-ba-shaw-bess.

Whitewater — Wau-be-gan-naw-pe-kat, Wau-bish-ne-pa-wau.

The government's surveyors were instructed to preserve in their field
notes the native terms for lakes and streams: but such a list as the foregoing
would have been modified greatly or disregarded wholly in the usage of the
settlers, few of whom came from Maine ami none Mom Gulliver lands.

CHAPTER IV.

SETTLEMENT OF THE OLD NORTHWEST.

An early sequence of the peace of 1783 was the removal of the generally
hostile Iroquois tribes from old Tryon county and farther Xew York to
Canada, and the restriction of the remnant families and part tribes of friendly
Indians to small and but temporary reservations in Genesee Valley. The
great wilderness westward of the counties along the Hudson and- the lower
Mohawk were thus opened at once to peaceful settlement. Central, northern
and western Xew York, and the bordering tier of Pennsylvania counties, filled
rapidly with men of Xew England. Hunger for broader and more tillable
fields, and thirst for the "unearned increment" of farm values and selling
prices of village lots — better material conditions — were primary causes of this
swift, noiseless flight from Egypt. But the secondary cause lay closely behind.
These work-hardened men were organizers of towns, counties and states ; and
their influence upon political, industrial and commercial life was felt im-
mediately. As they followed the course of the sun, having all the west before
them and Providence their guide, they threw off much of the burden of older
colonial ideas, and wherever they halted, they founded a more liberal Xew
England, one of the nineteenth century then at hand rather than of the out-
worn century of the Pilgrims. The great advance guard of the invasion hav-
ing secured a first choice of farms and town sites, the later divisions of this
grand army, reinforced by a yet small European immigration, found the great
lakes an easy mad to the broad Northwest Territory. They carried with them
their household goods and much besides. Caesar and his fortunes were but
a light burden compared with theirs. If not all of these men were conscious
of the near-lying possibilities ami responsibilities before them, there were
among them men who hoped greatly for themselves, for their country and For
humanity.

hour states had grown from the joint cession of territory by Virginia,
Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the fullness of time had arrived for \Vis-
consin, which was then known as an Indian country, a fair field for trade in
furs and whisky, and as having in its southwestern corner a workable de-
posit of lead ores. 1 '['Ik- barbarous heraldry of the state seal quarters the

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 43

mattock with the anchor, plow, and sledge hammer, with a miner and a sailor
as supporters, almost the last device that could occur to men who knew the
state's real resources. But the motto. "Forward," is English and significant,
and nearly atones for the blazonry). The establishment of a land office at
Milwaukee and the contract-letting to surveyors for the work of finding and

staking the corners of townships and of their sectional subdivisions was - 1

followed by the long memorable business crisis and panic of J 837. Though
this was truly a national calamity, it had some determining influence on the
general character of the first great wave of immigration to southeastern
Wisconsin and northern Illinois — the latter then hardly less a wilderness than
the former — and in some way wrought not ill for our county. Settlements
and nearly atones for the blazonry.) The establishment of a land office at
tives, friends, and friends' relatives and friends — fleeing from commercial
and industrial disaster in the East — to this rather than to some other segment
of the western paradise. Many of these newer comers journeyed by the easy
way of the lakes to Milwaukee, Racine and Southport, and thence by Indian
trail or territorial road to their much desired journey's cud; for, fair and fer-
tile as were the fields passed over, there were friends and equally fair prospects
but a dav or two's travel forward. Xot a few- came overland from their old
homes in covered wagons — "prairie schooners."

The stout-hearted men of 1836 and 1S37 had budded better than they
knew, though they had not worked blindly nor without large purpose. They
had taken the first step which costs and also counts at so many of men's be-
ginnings, and which made the way of their followers a little easier than their
own had been. A colonial clergyman, preaching an "election sermon" to men
of .Massachusetts, in 1688, said that God had sifted a whole nation, that He
might send choice grain into the New England wilderness. It was no inferior
grain, sifted largely from the Eastern states with a not negligible quantity
From the British empire and from Germany, which sowed this county with
home-builders from whom was to proceed a generation of nation-defenders.

It is not now and here needful to exalt overduly the character and ability
of the founders nor to set them greatly above the fair average of American
citizens of their time, hew of them were saints, though a large pi
them were God-fearing and man-loving, and nearl) all were well bred in obi
ience to law and in respeel for social order: and all were in some wa\ useful,
each to others. Their new situation called into readj action the ancient virl
of hospitality to strangers at their cabin doors anil of neighborly helpfulness
and indulgence: though they differed sturdily, like men of many minds, y
interests, ami prejudices. Like comrades in arms, and like all who mec' like

44 WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

dangers and difficulties, these men soon learned each other's general or special
value, and neither could nor would they suffer a foible or two to hide true
worth wholly out of sight; for, just then, men were more wanted than ideal
perfection in men's garments.

The pioneers had left orderly, well-governed communities, where
churches, schools, public records, newspapers, mails, roads and all such
agencies as bind men together in large and in small communities are human
nature's daily needs; and such were the needs of the men and women of Wal-
worth after their first provision for shelter, food and fuel. Another early need,
too, has been noted — that of "allotting a portion of the virgin soil as a ceme-
tery, and another portion as the site of a prison," and these needs were not
long neglected. The early settlers included men of such various callings that
most of the work required by their simpler life could be done among them
from passably well to skillfully. Besides the indispensable farmers, house-
builders, mill-wrights, sawyers, millers, blacksmiths, shoemakers, and tailors,
there came at once surveyors, physicians, preachers, teachers, lawyers, re-
tailers, inn-keepers, and moneylenders. A community so meeting and form-
ing on prairies and among venerable trees might be likened to houses framed,
marked and shipped to a colony across the sea, there to "rise like an exhala-
tion."

BIRTHPLACES OF EARLIEST MEN OF WALWORTH.

As to the old homes, it may be said more specifically and without great
inaccuracy that while every New England state, nearly every county of New
York, and many counties of the Western Reserve of Ohio sent within a dozen
years each its contribution, the greater number were from Vermont, western
Massachusetts and Connecticut, the counties of northern, central and western
New York, with those along both banks of the Hudson, the northern tier of
Pennsylvania, and northeastern Ohio. But there were also noticeably men of
New Jersey, the upper Delaware counties of Pennsylvania and of those along
her southern tier; besides men who had first sojourned in Michigan. Indiana
and Illinois. There were a few from "Kvangeline-land," descended from men
of Connecticut and eastern Long Island who went in 1760-61 to make Xova
Scotia of Acadie, and Cornwallis, Horton, and Aylesford from the parish of
Grand Pre, and also to set up for Rev. Thomas Handley a pulpit in place of
Father Kclicien's altar.

Men of foreign birth found their way here easily, though they were not
:it first very numerous. As transportation improved, their movement this way
was somewhat quickened, and more noticeably after the Irish famine of 1847

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 45

and the German revolution of [848-49. Irishmen diffused themselves through-
out the towns and villages and most of them are now hardly known but as
Americans. Germans lodged themselves at first in the towns along the ea >
era county line, but have set themselves no such permanent limit. Hardly one
of the thirty-two counties of Ireland is unrepresented here. Xeail
German state, large and small, has furnished the county with some share ol
its muscles and its mind, though the later arrivals appear to be chiefly fi
the northern parts of the empire. Norwegians came in time to bu) govern-
ment land, and their names are found mostly in town records of Lagrange,
Richmond, Sugar Creek and Whitewater. There has never been a noticeable
colored element of our population, owing, most likely, to the superior attrac-
tions of the greater cities along Lake Michigan and Rock river. How much
our foreign-born citizens are of us as well as with us may he inferred fairly
from some hundreds of names of soldiers of the Civil war. The number of for-
eign-born citizens now living here is but a small proportion of the whole popu-
lation.

CHAPTER V.

SURVEYS GENEVA LAKE TROUBLE ARRIVALS.

YYhencesoever they came, the men of 1836-61 were mostly of American
descent, and all of American ideas, beliefs, feelings, habits and purposes, as
they well proved in their later lives as well as in the current of all their lives.
It was quite natural for these men, when their most pressing home wants were
supplied by their activity and ingenuity, to call themselves together to or-
ganize for local self-government; and within six years a part of the lately un-
bounded wilderness had been set off by mathematically determined county
lines with sixteen township subdivisions, and as many new names added to
the national gazetteer. Thus geographical definiteness took the place of New
France and Northwest Territory, and town 3 north, range 18 east, became
Spring Prairie.

CONTEST AT LAKE GENEVA.

He who first stands upon soil hitherto untrodden by civilized men. him-
self for the hour the vanguard of westward-moving empire, instinctively looks
about him for water and timber. Mills must be built, and water power sites
are likeliest to be soon at a premium. Hence, at first sight the attractions at
the foot of Geneva Lake were irresistible. Similar, though not equal, oppor-
tunities at the lakes of Delavan and Whitewater and at the rapid places of
the several creeks could not for long be overlooked. The sub-contract for
establishing township lines from Beloit eastward to Pake Michigan had been
let in [835 to John Brink and John Hodgson, who, with Jesse Eggleston,
Reuben T. and William Ostrander as assistants, began work immediately.
Taking two tiers of towns at once they readied Geneva lake early in Septem-
ber. They meandered ( in surveyor's sense ) the circumference of the lake and
made the first official chart, showing its form and area. At the foot of the
lake Mr. Brink took note, on his own and Hodgson's account, of -olden possi-
bilities there, blazed and marked a few trees to indicate the priority of his
claim to the town site and water right, and passed eastward with his compass
and field notes. He was a native of < (ntario county. New York, his birthplace
near Geneva, which is at the foot of Seneca lake. He may have read of Pake

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

Leman and the city of the Allobroges and of John Calvin. However this may
have been, he did not like the name of Bigfoot, by which Mrs. Kinzie, as early
as 1832. had mentioned the lake, nor any of its Pottawattomie equivalents or
alternatives — all barbarously uncouth and nearly irreducible to writing. Ik-
then and there named the lake for all coming time, and his good taste has
never been questioned; for even the land office did nol insist upon "Gei
zhich-qua-wauk." or "Kish-wau-ke-toe." The western end of this gifl of the
glaciers had been passed not infrequently by officers and soldiers on their
journeys between Chicago and Fort Winnebago ( Portage City). About [830
Lieut. Jefferson Davis had ridden by that route, and in his latest years re-
called his pleasing impressions of his view of the lake as he passed.

In 1832, as soon as Black Hawk and his tribe were defeated and driven
across the Mississippi, the bloody disturbances — killings, scalpings and burn-
ings— about Xaperville ended forever. It was thus safe for Christopher
Payne to leave the fort at Chicago and go in search of the mill site at the foot
of Geneva lake, a fair description of which had been given him by a half
breed trader. He reached the Xippersink valley, in Bloomfield. but for want
of food for a much longer journey forward he went back to Chicago. Had
he found the trail and followed it for another hour or two he would have
reached the object of his search about three years earlier than Mr. Brink's
arrival, and the annals of earliest Lake Geneva would have losl a long and
but moderately interesting chapter. Early in 183d he set forth again, this
time from Squaw Prairie, near Belvidere, and with him George \V. Trimble.
his son-in-law. and Daniel Mosher. At the end of two days he found tin-
mill site and the unplatted city, but did not find (or be disregarded if he
found) Mr. Brink's claim-marks. Having eaten their provisions, they went
back, but came again in March, built a log house and returned to Squaw
Prairie. Early in April they were a third time on the ground, and they began
to build a dam across the outlet.

John Hodgson, of the surveying party, whose work bad been to -take
section corners within Mr. Brink's township lines, ami William Ostrander had
been left to occupy and improve the claim a- made in 1S35, and to prevent
encroachment. They, too, had claims there. Mr. Payne came while they
were at Milwaukee whither they had gone for provisions. The winter at
Geneva was long and lonesome, and Milwaukee was more attractive, even in

its infancy, — else Payne's three comings, in tin 1 of two months, would

not have escaped their earlier notice. On their return they trii h n words

and turf-throwing would do and then sent to Milwaukee for reinforcements.
In the short meantime other men had become interested. Brink's men at

48 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Geneva had sold a quarter interest in his claim to Charles A. Noyes and
Orrin Coe: and Payne's sun. Uriah, after the first defeat, had given his one-
third share of his father's claim to Robert Wells Warren, for which the latter
agreed to help in recovering and holding the larger remnant. Air. Warren
was as bold and persistent as Payne, and much more resourceful and politic
than the old frontiersman. The needs of the situation soon compelled com-
promise, and Air. Hodgson, acting in Air. Brink's name, sold all rights in
dispute for two thousand dollars. Peace was restored, but anger and resent-
ment were not soon soothed into forget fulness. On the one hand. Payne com-
plained that he had been forced to "buy his own pocketbook" at an extortion-
ate price. On the other side. Brink and Reuben T. Ostrander denied Hodg-
son's authority to sell more than his own claim. Other men were coming to
the building of a new city, and their ears were soon tired of these complain-
ings.

ARRIVALS AT OTHER TOWNS IN 1836-7.

While this war was breaking out Palmer Gardner had settled quite peace-
fully on section 26 of Spring Prairie, and Gardner's Prairie was for long
afterward a convenient geographical term for that part of the township.
Though then unmarried, he built a cabin, broke ground, and raised a crop of
grain and potatoes. He was not without neighbors, even in 1836. Ten or
twelve families came that year, and a few single men besides.

In 1835 Major Jesse Meacham, a soldier of 1812-15, and Adolphus
Spoor set out from Washtenaw county, Michigan, to look before leaping into
a new Troy. They marked their claims, and the next year came with families
and goods to stay and pass thence into local history.

Asa Blood, later of Sugar Creek, and a young man named Roberts, of
whom later trace is not thus far found in records, built a cabin near the village
of East Troy, on the north side of Honey creek. Mr. Roberts appears to
have made and sold an earlier claim in Troy. This later act and sign of pos-
session was in tin- spring of 1836.

James Van Slyke had first halted, with his family, at the foot of the
lake; but in the fall of [836 he built bis house near Bigfoot's village in the
town of Walworth. \ child, named Geneva, had been born at the other end
of the lake, and Miss Van Slyke ami her parents passed the first winter of bel-
li fe in the new house at Fontana.

Harry Kimball came late in [836 and made his claim mi section 6, of
Bloomfield, within easy distance of tin.' settlement at Geneva, and went home
to Cooperstown. New York. The next spring he came with bis son, Oramel,
and built his house.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 49

Col. Samuel Faulkner Phoenix entered the county, at its Spring Prairie
gateway, early in July, 183d. After a few explorations of the country about
Duck, Geneva and Swan lakes and Sugar creek, keeping Spring Prairie as his
base of operations, he determined his settlement, early in August, by taking
his movables to the bank of Swan lake outlet, and with him went Allen Per-
kins. About two months later William Phoenix, the Colonel's cousin, reached
the new city with his family. Henry, the Colonel's brother, presently came
and the two became partners in business. Having founded his city and dedi-
cated it to perpetual temperance, the Colonel named it in honor of Edward C.
Delavan, of Albany. A few years later Swan lake was renamed Delavan. Mr.
Perkins soon returned to the eastern side of the county, leaving all the honors
and prospects at Delavan to the house of Phoenix.

Isaiah Hamblin came earliest to Lafayette, with his wife as evidence of
his intention to stay. This was in June, 1836. Rev. Solomon Ashle) Dwin-
nell, Elias Hicks, Alpheus Johnson, Sylvanus Langdon, Charles Chauncey
Perrin, and Isaac Vant came before the year's end — at least, to mark their
several claims. Mr. Dwinnell notes that the following winter was unus-
ually severe. Houses had been built, and some of these were occupied in
spite of the difficulties of place and season.

Major John Davis, though unmarried, built near Silver lake, in Sugar
Creek, and lived somehow through the winter of [836-37 under his own ridge-
pole. The next year brought him neighbors, but he moved onward, oul of
county annals.

Late in 1836 John Powers built his house in the town of I. inn. nol far
from Mr. Payne's at Geneva and .Mr. Kimball's in Bloomfield. Hi- family
came at next springtime, and thus perfected his citizenship of Linn.

The settlement at Elkhorn was planned in [836 by I. el '.rand Rockwell,
his brother, and their friend. Horace Coleman. Early in 1S37 Mr. Rock-
well and Mr. Coleman came to find the stake where the four central town-,
met. At Spring Prairie. Hollis Latham joined them. Within another fort-
night Mr. Rockwell, with Daniel 1-;. and Milo E. Bradley, hut without Mr.
Coleman, who thought not over well of the proposed site — perhaps becausi
lacked water power — were again at the pivotal stake. They built a cabin on
section 6 of Geneva. Mr. Latham made In- claim in the same section, and
Albert Ogden. who had come with them from Milwaukee, chose hi- I
section 1 of Delavan. The elder Bradley had come in the inten >1 of Lewis J.
Higbv. who afterward bought land in section 5 of Richmond.
' '(4)

50 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

THE FIRST SETTLER.

Whatever honor may be due to the memory of the first actual settler
within the county, that is the unquestionable right of Christopher Payne, a
man who — to compare the smaller with the greater — was much of the texture
and quality of the famous frontiersmen of the post-Revolutionary period, and
a not unworthy forerunner of the men of the pioneer years. His priority of
settlement, though it was by a few weeks only, is clear enough, and his easily
admitted claim to such distinction may be regarded as yet stronger from his
adventure in 1832. As to the great dispute. Judge Gale and Mr. Simmons,
both high-minded men and good lawyers, were of opinion that Mr. Brink
was wholly in the right. Had neither lie nor Mr. Payne ever crossed the
county line the first settlement would have been made early in 1836, and the
site of Lake Geneva would not long have been overlooked nor unoccupied.
Before the end of 1837 every town was more or less settled, though neither
the towns nor the county had been officially named. In earlier records, as at
the land-office, these minor divisions are described as towns 1, 2, 3, 4, north
of base line on the boundary of Illinois and Wisconsin, ranges 15, 16, 17, 18
east of meridian passing northward along the western line of Lafayette
county.

CONTESTED CLAIMS.

The first comers sometimes found worse to meet and overcome than the
sullenly retiring Indians, hard winters and all the hardships of breaking
ground for planting a new community. To mark a few trees, or even to build
a hut, did not in every instance secure the actual settler in possession of his
claim; though public opinion, as represented by his neighbors, was on the side
of equity — that is, was favorable to the man who came to stay as against
grasping speculators. Judge Gale wrote of these perniciously enterprising
gentry: "The alternating prairies, openings, and groves of heavy timber,
meandered with numerous creeks and small rivers having an abundance of
water power, early attracted attention of explorers; and while the surveyors
were at work in the spring ami summer nt'iN^o these adventurers were thread-
ing the valleys and selecting advantageous sites for imaginary villages and
cities. These baseless claims were sometimes insisted on as real, when neces-
sary to give priority over some 'intruding' actual settler who had made his
claim at the same place; and the slight differences of memory between con-
tending claimants were settled in favor of him who could rally to his aid the
most pugnacious followers."

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 51

Mr. Dwinnell wrote that in [837 the settlers organized associations for
mutual protection in holding three hundred and twenty acres each, — each un-
married woman one hundred and sixty acres. Fathers wen allowed one
hundred and sixty acres for each minor son. Committees were chosen to tr)
and to settle disputed titles. An instance of committee-justice is told. The
defendant in possession was found to have a clear right, but was obliged to
pay half of the costs of an unreasonahle neighbor's attempl to eject him. Few
settlers had money, but such as had valuable timber claims were helped by
the money lenders at the moderate rate of one hundred per cent, for three
years' use. Such easy terms were quite providential for men who had soon
exhausted such slender means as the cost of their westward movement had
left them. To these several aids to prosperous settlement was added the long-
famous currency of the period. Since wampum had just been demonetized,
this paper stuff, when brought to this side of the lake, was in effect legal
tender; but not so if the latest holder, who had had no choice but to accept it,
should try to move it in the direction of its source at Kalamazoo or Tecumseh

LAND SALES.

A land sale of one hundred townships in southeastern Wisconsin was
advertised by the land office at Milwaukee, to begin November i<>. 1838. The
settlers, mostly unprepared to pay. asked and gained a delay until February
18. 1839. Sales began with townships 1 to 10. ranges from lake shore west-
ward, and amounted to four or five townships daily. The lands of this count)
were sold between February 25th and March 5U1. and the settlers held their
own claims. Sales were made to highest bidder on each tract, starting at I
government's minimum price, one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. Men
of Walworth would have shown themselves degenerate descendants of their
eastern ancestors had they not found some useful device by- which to prevent
competitive bidding. The several home associations were repre ented by
agents empowered to buy for their non-attending neighbors, and these agents
were numerous enough to constitute an effective physical force if. in their
judgment, fair play should need such help. If the minimum price was rai
an agent would follow until his bid became highest— as high, if necessary,
twenty dollars. If payment was not made that day the bidding w 1 md

the same land was started next day at the lowest rate, and was usually sold
at that price without further annoyance from pre', ion- competitor-. If, how-
ever, a speculator was disposed 1- renev hi- bidding, the affair became the
concern of all the agents. Such presumption wa >n beaten oul of the man

52 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

who dared to oppose superior numbers, or was washed away in the otherwise
undefiled water of Menominee river. Christopher Payne and Major Meacham
were not the only ready-witted, stout-willed, rude-handed men then in Wal-
worth.

CHAPTER VI.

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION.

Wisconsin, having passed from French to English and thence to Ameri-
can possession, was included in the old Northwest Territory until 1800. when
it became part of Indiana Territory. In [809 it was joined to Illinois Terri-
tory, and in 1818 to Michigan Territory, the latter organized in 1805 In
1836 the territory of Wisconsin (less the northern peninsula given to Michi-
gan to placate her for the loss of the Ohio strip) was organized, and in 1838
Iowa was detached from its imperial domain. On admission as the thirtieth
American state, in 1848. it suffered the loss of the region between St. Croix
river and the upper Mississippi.

With territorial government came need of new counties. Iowa. < raw-
ford and Milwaukee were at once set off from Brown (with Des Moines and
Dubuque across the river). In 1838 Milwaukee county, though much the
smallest of these, was most sub-divided, and one of the new counties was
named for the then chancellor of the state of New York, Reuben 1 [yde Wal-
worth, of Saratoga, the last of a short, illustrious line of judges (beginning
in 1777 and ending with 1847). But not as chancellor was he thus honored
in Wisconsin. He was also president of the New York Stale Temperance
Society, and his name, with that of Edward C. Delavan, of Albany, were
thought peculiarly fit for a new county and one of its towns, — since the town
was already founded on a moral idea, and pious men of Delavan, Spring
Prairie and Geneva were trying to build the county on the same foundation.
Judge Walworth was born in 1788 and died in 1807. In 1848 he was the
defeated Democratic candidate for governor, his name on the ("ass and
Butler ticket of the divided party. He lived to compile a valuable genealogy
of his mother's family, descendants of John Hyde, of Norwich, Connecticut.

Walworth county lies along the northern line of Illinois, it- eastern
about twenty-seven miles from the slightly irregular shore of ] ake Michigan.
It is twenty-four miles square, its center in latitude \2 41' north, and longi-
tude 88° 32' west. The bordering counties are Rock on the west, Jefferson
and Waukesha north. Racine and Kenosha east, Boone and McHenry south.
Its sixteen townships were in 1838 included in five towns, of wi ivan

54 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

was the southwestern quarter of the county, Elkhorn the northwestern quar-
ter, Geneva the southeastern quarter, while the northeastern quarter was just-
ly divided between Spring Prairie and Troy. In 1842 a census was taken for
reapportionment of legislative representation. Sheriff Mallory and Under
Sheriff Oatman performed this work, and Mr. Davis recorded their returns
in Vol. 1, pp. 422-446, of Mortgages. It is evident from the face of this
record that the returns were clerically well made. Mr. Davis was a shrewd
and competent business man, but his spelling and writing were rather old-
fashioned, even for seventy years ago. He followed his copy with faithful
intent, and the list of eight hundred and seventy-five names has as few errors
as most of such records. Only the heads of households are shown by name,
with number of males and females set against each name. It is plain that
many unmarried men thus missed entry by name; for several households
numbered from twelve to twenty-five. The sum of this enumeration, if the
register's crabbed figures are rightly read and added, was four thousand six
hundred and eighteen. The five towns had become nine, and a tenth was fore-
shown by returning two sheets for Troy. Richmond and Whitewater had
been taken from Elkhorn; Darien and Walworth (the latter including
Sharon) from Delavan; while Geneva and Spring Prairie were unchanged.
In a year or more afterward each land-office division had been named and
organized for home rule. The village of Elkhorn, laid out in 1837, spread
itself loosely into four sections, lying in as many towns. This was soon found
inconvenient for various county purposes, and in 1846 section 1 of Delavan,
section 6 of Geneva, section 31 of Lafayette, and section 36 of the town of
Elkhorn were set off as a new town and village of Elkhorn, and the larger
remnant of the old town was renamed Sugar Creek. Thus, the list of towns
became complete : Bloomfield, Darien, Delavan, East Troy, Elkhorn, Geneva,
Hudson, Lafayette, Lagrange, Linn, Richmond, Sharon, Spring Prairie,
Sugar Creek, Troy, Walworth, Whitewater. In 1865 Hudson was newly
named Lyons. (In the newer county of St. Croix the names of Hudson,
Richmond, Springfield and Troy are repeated.)

CONGRESSIONAL AND LEGISLATIVE DISTRICTS.

At the four sessions of the second Territorial Assembly. 1838-40, one
member sat in the Council and two in the House of Representatives for the
joint district of Rock and Walworth counties. At both sessions of the third
Assembly (December, 1840, and December, 1841 i. four members appeared in
the lower House. At the fourth Assembly two councihnen sat for the dis-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

trict. At the fifth (.and last) Assembly, 1847-48, these counties were separ-
ately represented in both Houses.

When Wisconsin put on statehood, in 1848, the counties of Jefferson,
Green, Milwaukee, Racine (including Kenosha), Rock and Walworth con-
stituted the first of her two congressional districts. In 1852 lefferson. Green
and Rock were made part of a new district, the other counties remaining the
first of three districts. In 186 J the first district was left unchanged, though
the state had gained three members of Congress. In 1872 .Milwaukee was
dropped and Rock added. In 1882 Waukesha was exchanged for Jefferson.
From 1892 to 1912 the counties of the first district have been ( rreen, Kenosha,
Racine, Rock and Walworth.

For the state Senate thirty-three members were chosen biennially- [or
odd-numbered districts in even-numbered years, for even-numbered districts
in odd-numbered years — until 1882, when the sessions becacic biennial and
the terms quadrennial. Walworth was a senate district from 1848 to 1870, —
at first numbered fourteenth. In 1853 it was numbered twelfth. In 1872 it
was joined to Kenosha and numbered eighth. In 1892 it was joined with
several towns of Rock to make the twenty- fourth. This apportionment was
found unconstitutional, because not composed of entire assembly districts, and
in 1896 the two assembly districts of Walworth, with one of Jefferson, made
up the twenty-third senate district. Since 1902 the whole of these two coun-
ties compose the twenty-third.

From 1848 to 185 1 the county chose five assemblymen. The towns of
the first district were East Troy, Spring Prairie, Troy. Those of the second
district were Lagrange, Richmond, Whitewater; third district, Darien, Linn,
Sharon, Walworth; fourth district, Bloomfield, Geneva, Hudson; fifth district,
Delavan, Elkhorn, Lafayette, Sugar Creek. m

From 1852 to 1855 there were six districts: First, Elkhorn, Geneva,
Hudson; second, Lafayette, Sugar Creek, Troy; third, East Troy, Spring
Prairie; fourth, Lagrange, Richmond, Whitewater; fifth, Darien, Delavan,
Sharon; sixth, Bloomfield, Linn, Walworth.

From 1856 to 18(15 the county was divided quarterly: the Geneva dis-
trict numbered one, the Delavan district two, the Whitewater districl tli
the East Troy district (with Elkhorn) four.

From 1866 to 1883. three districts: Fir i. Darien, Delavan, Richmond,
Sharon, Walworth; second. Bloomfield, Elkhorn, Geneva, Lafayette, Linn,
Lyons, Spring Prairie: third, East Troy, Lagrange, Sugar ' reek, Tro
Whitewater.

56 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

From 1884 to 1890 ( with biennial terms) the western half of the county,
less the town of Walworth, was the first district. The rest of the county,
including Elkhorn, was the second district.

From 1892 to 1900 the northern half, with Elkhorn, became the first
district, the eight southern towns the second district. One more reduction, in
1902, has made the whole county one assembly district.

This steady loss of representation is due to the small increase of popu-
lation here since the monetary panic of 1857, while Milwaukee and the north-
ern counties have multiplied mightily. The several Federal enumerations
have shown but one decrease — between 18^0 and 1870:

1840 2,61 1 1880 26,249

1850 17.832 1890 27,860

i860 26,496 1900 29.259

1870 25,972 [910 29,614

The legislative membership is constitutionally fixed at thirty-three sena-
tors and one hundred assemblymen, and thus Walworth's loss is gain else-
where in the state. But the county has yet some noticeable influence in legis-
lation, and she is yet of some appreciable political value.

JUDICIAL CIRCUITS.

In 1837 citizens of the present county of Walworth went to Milwaukee
as plaintiffs or defendants in cases at law. In 1838 the county was attached
temporarily, for judicial purposes, to the new county of Racine. In April,
1839, a federal judge held a term of court at Elkhorn. The federal judicial
district of eastern Wisconsin includes Walworth. One citizen of this county,
the late George Nelson Wiswell, was President Harrison's federal marshal
for this district.

From the beginning of state government this county has been of the
first judicial circuit, — until 1869, with Green, Kenosha. Racine and Rock:
since that year, with Kenosha and Racine only. Circuit judges are chosen
at April elections, their term of six years beginning in the following Janu-
ary. The current term of office began on the first Monday of January. 1908.

fudges of probate were chosen in the period between [840 and 1849.
A line of county judges began in January, 1850. Their functions were sub-
stantially those of the probate judges, with slight additions to their jurisdic-
tion in later years, until 1907. "An act to confer civil ami criminal jurisdic-
tion on the countv court of Walworth county" was published June 20th of

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 57

that year. By this act the county court has concurrent jurisdiction with the
circuit court in all actions of law and equity in which the sum at issue does
not exceed twenty-five thousand dollars; in actions of foreclosure of mort-
gages and mechanic's liens; in actions for divorces and annulment of mar-
riage contract; of title to real estate; of partition of real estate; and in all
criminal cases except murder, manslaughter and homicide. Issues of fad
may be tried with or without jury. Since iqoi special terms of county court
may be held at Whitewater. Of course, all the county judges have been
lawyers of good personal and professional repute; though, in 1885, a some-
what vigorous effort was made to open the way to the county bench for men
not bred to the "insipid clamor of the bar." The act of 1907 seems not likely
to encourage another such movement.

CHAPTER VII.

POLITICAL REPRESENTATION.

At the first session of the second Territorial Assembly (which was the
first session held at Madison), beginning November 26, 1838, Col. James
Maxwell, of the town of Walworth, appeared in Council for the counties
of Rock and Walworth, and held his seat through that and the next As-
sembly, which latter body adjourned February 19, 1842. To the fourth
Assembly came Charles Minton Baker, of Geneva, serving from December
5, 1842, to February 3, 1846. His colleague for the joint district, which
now had two members, was Edward Vernon Whiton, afterward the first
chief justice of the Wisconsin supreme court. A high estimate has been
placed upon the personal character and judicial fitness of Judge Whiton.
They who best knew Judge Baker rated his ability little if any lower and
his character quite as highly. At the fifth (and last) Territorial Assembly,
Dr. Henry Clark, of Walworth, served in Council from January 4, 1847, to
.March 13. 1848.

Othni Beardsley, of Troy, sat in the second Assembly as representative
of this part of the joint district. At the next Assembly the district represen-
tation was doubled, and Dr. Jesse Carr Mills, of Spring Prairie, with Hugh
Long, of Darien, were chosen; but Mr. Long resigned after one session
and Dr. James Tripp, of Whitewater, served for the second session. Dr.
Tripp, with John M. Capron, of Geneva, were chosen to the fourth As-
sembly, serving at the first session. At the second session William Ayres
Bartlett, of Delavan, took Dr. Tripp's seat. At the third session Salmon
Thomas, of Darien, and Dr. Mills replaced Messrs. Bartlett and Capron.
At the fourth session this unstable membership was composed, for Wal-
worth, now detached from Rock, of Warner Earl, of Whitewater, and
Gaylord Graves, of East Troy. The last Assembly held two regular sessions,
with a special session between. At the first of these appeared in Council, Dr.
Henry (lark, and as representatives Palmer Gardner, of Spring Prairie, and
Charles A. Bronson, of Lagrange. To the other sessions went Eleazar
Wakeley, of Whitewater, and George Walworth, of Spring Prairie, as rep-
resentatives.

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Assemble Districts at Six AppoRTionr-iENTs

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 59

Among the earliest attentions at the capital to the affairs of this county,
and previous to 1838, was the appointment of justices of the peace by Gov-
ernor Dodge and the consenting Council. There were William Cell for
Walworth, William Bowman for Sugar Creek. Gaylord Graves for I .. 1
Troy, Truman Hibbard for Troy, Thomas McKaig for Geneva, Col. Perez
Merrick for Lafayette, Benjamin Carpenter Pearce for Spring Prairie. Jedu-
thun Spooner for Sugar Creek, Salmon Thomas for Darien and Delavan,
and Israel Williams, Jr., for Linn.

The county having been set off by legislative act early in 183N, there
was yet time within the same year to nominate and elect county officers. The
chosen were for sheriff, Sheldon Walling, of Geneva 1 near Elkhorn) ; for
register of deeds, LeGrand Rockwell, of Elkhorn village; for treasurer, Will-
iam Hollinshead, of Delavan; for surveyor, Edward Norris, of Delavan; for
coroner, Hollis Latham, of Elkhorn; for county commissioners: For one
year, Benjamin Ball, of Linn; for two years, William Bowman, of Sugar
Creek; for three years, Nathaniel Bell, of Lafayette. In that year the vote
of the county, confirmed by the Legislature, made Elkhorn village the county
seat. The other competitor villages were Delavan. Geneva and Spring
Prairie.

The county commissioners met and organized, and the county officers
began their terms of office and their duties January 7, 1839, and that day
may be regarded as one of the birthdays of Walworth county. The records
remain to show how the commissioners and the register of deeds discharged
their respective functions. The treasurer and coroner lived to be called old
men. and yet died before they had become no longer useful to their fellow
citizens, whom they had served in many ways. Their ability was equal to
the needs of any service their modesty would permit them to undertake,
their official integrity unquestioned, and their lives blameless. Neither of
them was ever known to evade a plain duty or to perform it carelessly or in
other ways badly. Less is now known of the surveyor, and nothing to his
personal or official discredit. The sheriff had been, as he led his neighbors to
think, suppose, or concede, a brigadier-general of New York militia; though,
at his death in 1875, his widow could not find his commission among hi -
half-dozen best-kept papers, nor remember which Governor had signed it.
The adjutant-general"s office at Albany may contain thi cords of such an
appointment. He was competent to instruct in the rudiments, at lea t, ol
Scott's drill of the company, and he had some skill with drum-sticks. I Ms
duties as sheriff seem to have been performed fairly, and in the condition
of the county roads for at least half of the year such duty as that of mini-

60 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

moning jurors must have tried the resoluteness of even a brigadier-general.

He was an unconvertible Democrat, and hence was seldom afterward called

into public service.

The following is a transcript from the journal of the first meeting of

the county commissioners :

"At a meeting of the com. of Walworth County held at the house of

Daniel E. Bradley on Monday the 7 day of Jany 1839 Present Benjamin

Ball Nathaniel Bell and William Bowman and proceeded to appoint V A

McCraken Clerk of the board of Com. License was granted to R. W.

Warren to keep a Tavern in the village of Geneva untill the first day of

January 1840. for the sum of five dollars

"The meeting adjourned to meet again on the 18th day of March,

1839 at the house of Daniel E. Bradley

"Attest V. A. McCraken

"Clerk-
Thus the record runs, word, letter and point. At the third session.

April 1st, store licenses were given to Andrew Ferguson, at Geneva, and to

Henrv & Samuel F. Phoenix, at Delavan; and the fee imposed with each

license was ten dollars. To Othni Beardsley, at Troy, Ansel A. Hemenway.

at Spring Prairie, Greenleaf Stevens Warren, at Geneva, and Israel Williams,

at Walworth, tavern licenses were granted at five dollars each. The fiscal

statement made at the end of 1839 is thus shown:

Received $1,874.64

Paid out 1,786.69

Balance in treasury $ 87.95

The chairmanship of this first board of commissioners was given to
Major Bell, though Mr. McCraken did not record this interesting fact
until a later date. In 1840 Christopher Douglass, of Walworth, appeared in
place of Mr. Ball, whose term had expired, and served two years of his
term as chairman, Major Bell having resigned that post. In 184T Gaylord
Graves, of East Troy, followed Mr. Bowman, and was chairman in 1842.
George W. Arms, of Spring Prairie, succeeded Major Bell as member for
[842, :in(l Robert llollcy, of Hudson, followed Mr. Douglass, who had re-
signed in that year. The clerks of the board were Volncy Anderson Mc-
Craken, of Lagrange, for one year; Hollis Latham for two years; and Milo
Kelsey, of Delavan (if not then of Darien), for part of 1842.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 6l

The greater part of the boarcTs business was to license taverns and
stores, to lay out roads and road districts, to establish school districts and
appoint inspectors, to make juror lists, and to name election judges and
designate polling places. At the session of March 18, 1839, jurors were
selected for ser\-ice at the April term of court: Grand jurors, Asa I'.lood,
John Bruce, George Clark, Nicholas S. Comstock, Christopher Douglass,
Solomon A. Dwinnell, diaries Dyer, Palmer Gardner, Josepli Griffin, Morris
F. Hawes, Elias Jennings, Zerah Mead. Roderick .Merrick. Marshall New-
ell, Henry Phoenix, Jeduthun Spooner, Adolphus Spoor, Salmon Thomas,
James Tripp, Robert \Y. Warren, William Weed, Daniel Whitmore, Israel
Williams. Petit jurors, Charles M. Baker. Joseph Barker, William A. Bart-
lett, Othni Beardsley, Milo E. Bradley, Gorham Bunker, Jared B. Cornish,
Gaylord Graves, Solomon Harvey, William Hibbard. Elias Hicks, William
Hollinshead, Willard B. Johnson, George W. Kendall, John Lippitt, Allen
McBride, James Maxwell, William K. May, Austin L. Merrick, Benjamin
C. Pearce, Allen Perkins, Edwin Perry, William Stork, Elijah Worthington.
The board was petitioned to lay out a road from Elkhorn village to Mr.
Barker's (in Sugar Creek) and thence to the north line of the county.

At the session of April 1st a special election, for choice of township
officers, was ordered, to take place Thursday, May 9th. Polling places were
designated and election judges appointed: For Delavan, at Milo Kelsey's,
with Henry Phoenix, William Hollinshead and John Bruce as judges; for
Elkhorn, at Elijah Worthington's (in Lagrange), with George W. Kendall,
Tared B. Cornish and Zerah Mead as judges; for Geneva, at Roberl W.
Warren's, with Charles M. Goodsell. William K. May and Thomas McKaig
as judges: for Spring Prairie, at Ansel A. Hemenway's, with Thomas
Miller, Roderick Merrick and Solomon A. Dwinnell as judges; for Wal-
worth, at James A. Maxwell's, with Christopher Douglass, William Bell and
Amos Bailey as judges.

A few extracts from records may show some of the more importanl
work of the board between 1839 and 1842:

May 6, 1839 — William Stork, Morris Ross and Thomas McKaig ap-
pointed road viewers and directed to lav out a road from Geneva village by
nearest and best route to Lamphear's house (in Bloomfield) and thence to
state line near E. W. Brigham's. * Palmer Gardner, Richard

Chenery and Daniel Salisbury directed to view mad from northeast comer
of section 2^, (Spring Prairie), vvesl our and a half miles, thence south one
mile. * * * James Harkness, Sylvester < .. Smith and David S. Elting
to lav a road from a point on east line of section 23 1 Lafayette), westward

62 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

on or as near half section line as the ground will permit, to section 26, thence
to a road to Sugar Creek Prairie or to a road from Elkhorn (village) to
said Prairie. * * * Salmon Thomas, William Hollinshead and Sam-
uel F. Phoenix to la)- road from Geneva and Beloit territorial road at suit-
able place on northwest quarter of section 5 (Linn) to run northwest to
Charles S. Bailey's house (town of Delavan), thence to southwest corner
of Mr. Phoenix's field, by the grist mill, to Racine and Janesville road on
Rock Prairie (in Darien). * * * Jacob G. Sanders, John Boorman
and William Bell to lay out road from quarter section stake, east line of
section 17 (Walworth), west through middle of section to west side of
Bigfoot Prairie, thence by nearest and best road to intersect Beloit and
Southport road at or near west line of section 11 (Sharon) or to west line of
county. * * * Elijah Worthington, George Esterly and Edward Nor-
ris to view road from point where the road to Orendorf's ferry through
Eagle Prairie (Waukesha county) meets north line of county, thence south-
westerly to or near quarter stake on north line of section 28 (Lagrange).
Also, to view road beginning at or near the point where the Milwaukee and
Janesville territorial road crosses north line of section 27, following section
line west as far as land will admit good road, thence southwest to meet
line of county, in the direction of Janesville. * * * At this session
fourteen bills against the county were allowed. No. 1 was that of Andrew
Ferguson, two dollars and seventy cents. The sum of this first batch of
county orders Avas one hundred and twelve dollars and twenty cents, but no
items of these bills are recorded.

July 1, 1839 — Board ordered a highway tax of five mills on all real and
personal property. * * Edwin Brainard was allowed twenty-seven

dollar> fur committing a prisoner to the jail at Milwaukee. * * * Ten
county orders allowed, amounting to sixty-two dollars. * * Col.

Perez Merrick mentioned as county assessor.

September 9-12, 1839 — County divided into three assessment districts:
District 1, the southern tier of towns with Darien and the west half of
Delavan; district 2, Hudson, Geneva, east half of Delavan. Elkhorn, Sugar
Creek, Lafayette, and Spring Prairie; district 3, the northern tier, with
Richmond. * * * Plat and minutes of village of Elkhorn received and
recorded. * * * LeGrand Rockwell appointed to sell lots in that vil-
lage. (This refers to the county's quarter of section 36, town 3 north, range
if) east, in which are the county buildings. ) * * Wolf bounty fixed

at one dollar and fifty cents per scalp.

February 5, [840 — Twenty-eight dollars and fifty cents paid as boun-
ties for nineteen wolf scalps.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 63

January 5, 1841— Wolf bounty raised to three dollars, until July 1st.

March 5, 1841 — Resolved, that it is expedient and in accordance with
the wishes of a majority of the people of the count) to proceed to conclude
the contract for building a court house in this county.

April 4. 1842 — The board of county commissioners adjourned without a

day.

\\ ith the coming of a larger order of county administration these now
ex-commissioners were not mustered out of public employment. Their short
service had tried and proved their quality and had trained them fairly for
further public usefulness, as the several county and town records well show.
The county board of supervisors, with nine members (Major Meacham, of
Troy, absent), met September 6, 1842. and chose as its chairman John M.
Capron, of Geneva, a man of legislative experience, and as clerk, John Fish.
In 1846 a member was added for the new town of Elkhorn, and the old
town received the name Sugar Creek. In 1862, compliant with a statute of
the previous year, the board was reduced to five members, one for each
assembly district and a member for the county at large. This measure of
policy or of economy — hardly a war measure — was in operation eight years.
Members were elected biennially for a two-year term. In 1870 the old
order returned, and the board met with twenty members, an addition of one
member for each of the villages of Delavan, Geneva and Whitewater. In
1883 Whitewater, and in 1886 Lake Geneva became cities with ward rep
resentation. each having three wards. Thus, four members were added. In
1894 Delavan and Elkhorn became statutory cities of the fourth class, each
with three wards. Sharon village was incorporated in [893 and the villag
of East Troy, Geneva Junction and Walworth in 1901, each having its mem-
ber of the county board. Thus, since 1842 the membership <>f this f>
has been doubled in number. Among the functions of the board is thai of
appointing three superintendents of the county poorhouse and insane asylum;
since 1887 a soldier's relief committee of three members: and since [90] a
supervisor of assessments. The superintendents of the poor and insane
choose a resident superintendent of the farm, buildings and inmates
times one of the directing body. .Many members of tin's | ,f thirty-two

farmers and business men. representing the intelligence and publ t of

the towns, villages and cities, are so often re-elected for their term oi
year each that it never meets as a body wholly without experience in county
affairs. As would naturally be thought, the names ,,f several of these mem-
bers appear in the lists of assemblymen and sta f >ne member
passed by rapidly succeeding steps, by way of the Assembly, I it of tin-
mighty at Washington.

CHAPTER VIII.

COUNTY BUILDINGS AND POOR FARM.

An act of Congress, approved May 26, 1824, gave to counties in states
and territories where public lands were situated a right of pre-emption to
one quarter section of land for seats of justice. The county commissioners
pre-empted, by permission of Mr. Rockwell's company, the southeast quarter
of section 36, township 3 north, of range 16 east, in the Milwaukee land
district, being the Sugar Creek corner of the town and city of Elkhorn. The
certificate of this pre-emption was numbered 1144. The minimum lawful
price, two hundred dollars, was paid February 5, 1839, by the commissioners
acting for the county. President Tyler signed the patent March 3, 1843,
and this instrument was recorded April 2, 1852, by Register Long at page
217, Vol. XIV of Deeds. A park was reserved as a court house site, and
the rest of the land was laid out in lots and platted by the county surveyor,
Mr. Norris, and Mr. Rockwell was empowered to sell lots in behalf of the
commissioners. Some thoughtful persons secured lots facing the west and
north sides of the park for a school house and a church. A few lots besides
were sold, and, except a lot for the jail and a hotel, the rest of the county's
quarter section became part of the court house contractor's payment.

The commissioners acted never more wisely and well than in setting off
the park. It was part of a grove of nature's planting — mostly oaks of the
black and burr varieties — so old that the earlier discoverers of the North
American coast might have seen them as saplings had they but come this
way to find mill sites and county centers. More than fifty years ago decay,
lightning and high winds began to overthrow the aged and infirm among
them, not swiftly, but too surely. So many n\ them yet live as to preserve
the general appearance so long admired. Other trees, not oaks, have tilled
the vacant places, and the park, undisfigured by officious "landscape archi-
tects," and little marred by the county buildings, which are partly hidden
except at shortest distance, is a summer comfort and a thing of unadorned
beauty to citizens and appreciative visitors. While this park is the property
of the county and wholly within the county's control and the city mows its
grass and rakes away its dead leaves and twigs, and provides lawn seats and

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 65

electric lights, neither city nor county has ye1 become so super-civilized as to
improve its natural charms by posting notices to tired feet to "keep off the

grass." The dimensions are about six hundred and thirty-nine feet long from
east to west and five hundred and ten feet wide between north and south. Its
area is nearly seven and one-half acres. The court house stands near the
park center; that is, a few feet east and north of that point. It is about
sixty-two rods northwestward from the stake which determined the settle-
ment at Elkhorn.

THE FIRST COURT HOUSE.

Before April, 1839, Mr. Rockwell had built for the county a small office
on the north side of the park, at or near the northeast corner of Court and
Broad streets. It was about eighteen by twenty-two feet on the ground, a
low story in height, with columned porch in front, plain in its neatness, and
was decently painted. It was occupied as a court room, a meeting place for
the county commissioners, and an office for the registry of deeds and mort-
gages. In 1840 Willard B. Johnson, of Whitewater, built a log jail on the
county's land, a little north of the primitive court house. Its dimensions
were fourteen by twenty feet, and it was fully seven feet between joints. This
ffowning bastile, with its full equipment of bars, bolts, locks and solitary
cell, stood there twelve years; for it never had at one time enough inmates
to lift up one side, upset the entire structure, and effect a general jail delivery.

SECOND COURT HOUSE.

At its session of March 5, 1841, as has been shown, the board of com-
missioners had resolved to complete a contract for building a court house, but
the scanty record does not show the steps which had led to such decisive ac-
tion; nor, beyond two services added to the contract, and some advance pay-
ments to contractor ordered, does the record tell of later steps taken.
Doubtless, papers now not to be found were tiled. As nearly as now under-
stood, it was planned to build a public house at the hotel corner of Wisconsin
and Walworth streets and to derive some revenue for the county from its rent
al to worthy and well qualified landlords. No citizen of the count) had mi
and skill needful for performing such work as was required by the plans and
specifications, or, if he had. none such cared so to invest bis -kill and mean
Col. Edward Eklerkin knew one James Farnsworth, Jr., at or near Fond du
Lac. who was called hither and who came with Richard Hogcbooin and Hen

(5)

66 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

jamin Arnold. To these men the contract was let, considerable timber and
other materials were brought and some payments made. The contractors
found themselves unable to take the next steps, and they assigned their con-
tract to Levi Lee, a then somewhat roving contractor, who came here from
the lower Rock River valley. He fulfilled his contract, made seats for the
court room, and was directed to buy a "ten-plate" stove with twenty-four
feet of Russia-iron seven-inch pipe at cost of not more than thirty dollars.
As part payment he received the unreserved- and unsold parts of the county's
quarter section of land. He became a citizen of Elkhorn, served the village
and his own interests in various ways, and died on Christmas day, 1875.

The court house was thirty-six feet wide by fifty-two feet long, two
stories high, gable-roofed with four fluted and voluted hollow columns sup-
porting the front gable, which projected as a porch, and with a belfry. It
was painted white, and had green blinds. Its upper floor was the court room,
with stairway at the rear, and the bench and bar, which were well built of
walnut, in front. The pine seats and the floor were painted. Its lower floor
gave a little more than elbow room to part of the county officers and two rooms
for jury's use. It was for some years one of the best court houses in the state.
It was dedicated in due form May 10,. 1843, by lawyers and citizens. Exper-
ience Estabrook serving the occasion as chairman and George Gale as secre-
tary. On the following Fourth of July it was dedicated again "to the blind
goddess of justice," in a speech by Charles M. Baker, which Judge Gale
described as an excellent oration. Before i860 the court room was so re-
arranged as to seat the judge and counsel at the back end, the inside stair-
way having been pulled away. A false floor disfigured the classic colonnade;
but the outside stairways, mounting each way from the lower entrance, were
as useful as homely and gave a few more square feet to the court room.
In 1874 this court house was moved southward to give way to another temple
to the blind goddess, and the next year, thirty-two years after its dedication,
il was sold at auction to Colonel Elderkin for little more than the price of two
sparrows, fie moved it to the Walworth and Broad street comer and planned
in various vain ways to make it rentable. A little later its front wall was
pushed forward, displacing its Ionic columns, its outside was bedaubed with
the muddiest of colors and its inside filled with barb wire, horse rakes and corn
planters. Its last owner was Edward TT. Sprague, who in iqoo set it out into
the street to make way for a new building, and the next year the old house was
pulled down and reduced to second-hand lumber and kindling wood because
nobody knew of better use for it.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 67

SECOND JAIL, AND REGISTER'S OFFICE.

The board of supervisors met in special session April 21, 1851, with all
members present except David Williams of Geneva, for whom appeared
Richard B. Flack, of the town board. This body, as a committee of the
whole, having inspected the jail. Mr. Harrington moved to condemn it. The
motion prevailed by a vote of thirteen ayes to three noes. Mr. Barlow moved
to build forthwith and Messrs. Barlow, Bell, Coon, Fish and Harrington, as
a committee on ways and means, were directed to consider and to report by
the next day. Mr. Cotton moved to choose (or accept) a site at Delavan.
Voting by roll call, the ayes were seven: Messrs. Barlow, Bell. Birge, Coon,
Cotton, Gillet. Snell (representing respectively the towns of Delavan, Lafay-
ette, Whitewater, Walworth, Darien, Hudson and Linn). The noes were
nine: Messrs Clark, Dickson, Fish. Rack, C,age, Harrington, Lauderdale,
Powers, Stewart (respectively of East Troy. Sharon, Richmond, Geneva,
Spring Prairie, Sugar Creek, Lagrange, Troy, Bloomfield). The next day a
motion to repair the jail and to build a house for the sheriff was tabled. The
committee of five reported that a jail might be built, partly by tax and for the
rest "on the pledged faith of the county," and this was the sense of the board,
and was quite practical common sense. Mr. Cotton moved to appropriate
four thousand dollars and to build the jail on the site of the old one according
to a plan and specifications (prepared by Lemuel Bailey) then on file. Tin's
motion was carried, and February 1, 1852, fixed for completion of the work.
Messrs. Cotton, Harrington and Flack were named as building committee.
The contract was let to Levi Lee and Richard B. Flack, and Chairman Wins' n ,
of Elkhorn, took the latter's place on the building committee.

The old site, though now dry ground, was then found boggy and un-
suitable and the jail was built at Court and Church streets, facing southwardly.
It was of stone and home-made brick, nearly square and of two stories height.
The sheriff's house in front and jail in rear were brought under one roof, for
some time very leaky, but afterwards tinned and made water tight. A cor-
ridor on all sides of the jail room parted cells from outer walls, and it was
thought that oaken plank with a few bits of boiler plate would make all secure
from within. But escapes became so frequent as to annoy the sheriffs, and
a few years later the cells were rebuilt of oak joists so liberally spiked cheek
to cheek as to defy pockel saws and badly tempered (.able knives. \hout the
same time, say 1858, a wood-built wing, for household uses, was added east-
wardly. This building, too. was in its turn condemned, though in plan and

68 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

construction it was as good for its purposes, most likely, as any built that year
in Wisconsin. It was sold, with its now valuable lot, to Miss Amanda Bulkley,
who pulled away the wing, tore out the cells, and made the original build-
ing a dwelling. In no long time Hugh Dobbin, a dealer in old houses and
stores at Clinton, Delavan, and perhaps elsewhere, bought and occupied the
property. By one more sale its ownership passed to Mr. Flack, one of its
builders, who died under its roof in 1887. In October, 1845, tne board con-
sidered the need of a fire-proof office for the use of the sheriff. Sheriff Bell
was directed to let a contract for such a building, its cost not to be more than
twenty-five dollars in excess of four hundred and twenty-five dollars, and the
work to be finished in 1846. The contract was awarded to Gen. Sheldon
Walling. Just how this office was made fire proof is not now known. Its
outside was of wood, but may have been brick-laid between its studding, and
its floor may have been of bricks. It was one story high, dark, inconvenient,
and in time judged unsafe. It was occupied by the register of deeds and the
county treasurer and may have had a corner for the sheriff. At the board's
session of November 18, 1865, the need of a better building was declared and
January 18, 1866, Messrs. Crumb, Ray and Allen were instructed to procure
plans and bids. At a special session February 5th, one bid was received and
accepted, that of George Dewing, bricklayer, Alexander Stevens, plas-
terer, and Squire Stanford, carpenter, joining their proposals in one
bidding at four thousand two hundred and sixty-five dollars. The new office
was of hard yellow brick with tin roof, and floored with a lower grade of
brick. Except for the small entry way and stairway each floor was a double
room, parted by high, wide double doors of softest pine, with casings of the
same nearly incombustible material. The stairs and hand rail were of harder
wood. Pine was also the material of the filing cases and shelving. These
offices were well lighted and were usually overheated by coal stoves. The
upper floor was assigned to the county judge and the lower one to the reg-
ister of deeds. In 1890 both offices were tile floored and partly equipped with
steel furniture.

PRESENT COURT HOUSE.

In 1873 the board of supervisors calculated plausibly that a panic period,
by reason of lower prices of materials and a scarcity of employment for me-
chanics and laborers, was a favorable time at which to build a new court
house. Limiting the cost to twenty-five thousand dollars, the building com-
mittee, Newton M. Littlejohn, James Aram, Charles Dunlap. Alexander
Fraser and Ely B. Dewing, were to move in the matter at once. The con-

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN. 69

tract was made with Squire Stanford, who joined George Dewing's bid on
the masonry with his own for nineteen thousand two hundred and forty-nine
dollars. The men broke ground early in 1874. Monday evening, September
20, 1875. the lawyers and an audience of citizens met in the new court room
to dedicate it with many words from Judges Spooner and Wentworth, Fred-
erick W. Cotzhauseu, of Milwaukee, and Messrs. James D. Merrill, of East
Troy, Thompson D. Weeks, of Whitewater, and Colonel Elderkin. James
Simmons, of Lake Geneva, read twenty-nine and one-half inches (in non-
pareil or six-point type) of ten-syllable verse. Whatever Mr. Simmons did.
in his calling or out of it, was well done and in the manner of a liberally-
educated and kindly- feeling gentleman.

Though neither architecturally beautiful nor structurally perfect, the
courthouse is a fairly good building for its purposes. Court room, library
room and jury rooms fill its upper floor. Below are two safety vaulted
offices, the one for the clerk of the court, the other for the county clerk and
the treasurer, a sheriff's office, poor-superintendent's office and a super-
visor's room. Alterations and improvements have been made, and the whole
house is now steam heated and electric lighted. Much of the office furniture
is of steel. Water is conveniently supplied by the city's works. It may even
now be nearly or quite forgotten fso false and Heeling is human memor) 1
that the tower and dome once held aloft a colossal figure of Justice carved
of wood by an artist of Milwaukee — who may have loved his work too well
for his domestic peace — its stature nine feet or more, decently clad and law-
fully equipped (with sword and scales), as to feature- as awfully beautiful as
a Lithuanian Medusa, her petrifying gaze turned sternly toward the state line
— as if frowning upon a rival beauty similarly perched at Woodstock. Her
scale pans were soon blown away, hut she kept her right hand on her sword
until 1884 when an irreverent thunderbolt reduced her to chips and splintei

THE PRESENT JAIL.

It was evident to the board of 1877 that a better jail and sheriff's house
were indispensable, and it appropriated ten thousand dollars and ordered a
change of site. Newton M. Littlejohn, Henrj < .. Hollister, Samuel II.
Stafford, John Matheson, and Lucius Allen served as building committee. The
site chosen is opposite the southwestern park corner, facing eastwardly. The
plan was of Milwaukeean design and the work of Jam >nti " tors. The

outer work is of quarry stone and good brick. The is of 1

high stories, set upon a basement ston of cul stori ive a noble front 1

70 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

vation and to make life a burden to the sheriff's family). As a whole, it is
neither unsightly without nor very inconvenient within. The jail, adjoining
rearwardly, has two tiers of cells and corridors, all of soft and hard steel
bars riveted together cagewise. Jail makers of St. Louis supplied the metal
work. City water, steam heat, electric light and a new barn have since added
sensibly to its cost and value. The state board of control, which is constantly
receiving, absorbing and reflecting new light on state and county building
equipment, already urges rebuilding in a manner more fully compliant with
scientific sanitation's last revelation. A few years after this jail was finished
the board authorized an experiment with tramps and petty delinquents. A
shed was built, stone-hammers were bought, a few hundred loads of cobble
stones were delivered at the jail yard, Samuel Mitchell, of Elkhorn, was ap-
pointed overseer, and these prisoners were set at work to make road material.
Some sale was found for their product, but at no great distance from Elkhorn,
and the plan was soon dropped. From legislation and other causes, far fewer
tramps are committed than in the years between 1870 and 1890.

The state board of control having condemned the jail as "out of date
and no longer a credit to the county," a committee of the county board was
instructed at the session of December, 1910, to examine and consider the
matter. At the session of November, 191 1, the committee recommended the
sale of the jail property and the building of a new jail and sheriff's house on
the park, westward or northward of the other building, with a central heating
system for all of them. Messrs. Stewart and Thayer, of this committee, with
the county clerk, were instructed to call for bids for the present building and
lots and to procure estimates of the cost of a new building and equipment.

FIRE PROOF VAULTS.

For the security of the bulky and priceless county records, and because
of duties added by recent statutes to those of the county judge, a better
building was necessary. In 1905 the county board provided for really
fire-proof offices for the county court and the registry of deeds. The total
cost was about thirty-five thousand dollars. Upon a basement wall of dressed
limestone, forty-four by eight}' feet, a structure of cement, with steel-
rod reinforcement and a facing of pressed bricks was raised, and roofed
with terra cotta tiles. The floors are of small hexagon tiles. Each story
has a large fire-proof record room, and desks, tables, roller shelving and file
cases .'ire of steel. The county judge has the lower floor and. excepl three
small jury rooms, the register of deeds has the upper story. In 1908 one of

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 7 I

these small rooms was placed at the service of the Grand Army posts of the
county for deposit of such records and relics as they may choose to leave
there. In 1909 another of these rooms was set apart for the use of the super-
intendent of schools. The basement, beneath the lower record room, at
present stores the collection of the County Historical Society, as permitted by
statute.

CARE FOR THE POOR.

The helpless poor were, in the earlier years, left to the immediate care
of their several towns. This led to laying bills of cost before each county
board for its audit and allowance. In 1852 the time was ripe for a more
efficient county system and the board of that year chose three superintendents
as a governing commission for the county house and its farm. Authority
was given to buy not more than one hundred and sixty acres in section 4
of the town of Geneva, within three miles of the court house. An improved
farm of eighty acres, with buildings, was chosen and at once applied (in 1853)
to its present use. By successive extensions this farm now contains four
hundred and eight acres. The house, too, was extended, but later needs
soon outstripped this temporary provision. Late in 1872 a fire cleared the
ground for something greatly better. The new house was built at a cost of
ten thousand dollars, and it was then regarded, taken with its management,
as one of the best of its kind in Wisconsin. The contractors were John Trum-
bull, carpenter, and Charles Bonnet, mason, both of Whitewater. In 1883
and 1887 other buildings for the care of the incurably insane — a house
each sex — were built, each at like cost. In 1900 a new house, beside that of
1873. was built and the latter became a general dining hall for the institution
With barns and other buildings, and with recent improvements (including
steam heating and electric lighting) together with the value of the land at
one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre, it is now estimated thai 1
county property is worth two hundred thousand dollars. The yearl) ap
propriation for the care of the poor and insane lias become sixteen thousand
dollars, including one thousand dollar- for permanent impn The

county board visits the farm in a bod) each year, and it- superintendent and
the resident manager are men whom the humane citi nty can

trust. In the earlier half of the pasl forty yens the managen ticipated

and even bettered the suggestions of the stal and in the

reports of that body the example of Walworth was lai the citizens and

hoards of other counties of Wisconsin. Dr. William II. Ilurllnit was ap
pointed count) physician in [882 and he served until 1911, when he resigned
and Dr. Edward Kinne was appointed. Before r882 Dr. Charles S. Bur-
bank had sen ed f< >r a year 1 >r tv 1 >.

CHAPTER IX.

THE BENCH AND BAR.

It may never be known how President Jackson and the consenting Senate
induced Hon. David Irvin to leave forever behind him the elegancies of a
Virginia gentleman's home and drop to the semi-barbarous fare and informal
manners of primitive western hotels ; to exchange his brilliant prospects of
professional or political promotion for the dull routine of frontier courts.
It is only certain that he accepted the territorial judgeship for Wisconsin,
and that late in April, 1839. he dismounted his horse (not improbably at
Hollis Latham's hospitable mansion), placed his gun in temporary safety, and
soon afterwards, with his dog, found his way to the county building, north
of the park and at or near the northeast corner of Court and Broad streets.
Here, with Sheriff Walling's help, he opened in due legal form the first court
term for Walworth count}-. The clerk's journal tells the day's story best :

"At a term of the District-Court of Walworth County, begun and held
at Elkhorn on Monday the twenty-second day of April, 1839; present the
Honorable David Irvin. Judge of said Court:

"Ordered, that LeGrand Rockwell be appointed clerk of the District
Court for the County of Walworth. Whereupon the said Rockwell entered
into Bonds in the penal sum of two thousand dollars, conditioned as the Law-
directs, with Othni Beardsley and William Bowman, his securities, and took
the Oath of Office as prescribed by law.

"Ordered that Charles M. Baker be admitted as an Attorney and Counsel-
lor at Law to appear and practice in this and other Courts of Record within
this' Territory, it appearing to the Court thai he i> entitled so to do. Where-
upon said Baker took the oath of office.''

" \hm'1 A. I Eemenway
vs

I li;mncc\ I \ eS.

Appeal from Justice.

"And now comes the plaintiff by Horatio X. Wells, [of Milwaukee]
his attorney and moves the Court here for leave to tile a declaration in said
Cause. Whereupon it is ordered that said leave be given and that said dec-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. J^

laration be filed within thirty days hereafter and all other pleadings there-
after within twenty days successively until issue and the cause be continued
generally."

'"Thomas McKaig, Appellant.

Israel Williams, Appellee.

Appeal from Justice.

"On motion of Moses M. Strong [of Mineral Point], attorney for the
Appellant, ordered that a rule be entered that Benjamin Ball Esq., Justice of
the Peace before whom the above entitled cause was tried, make due return
of the proceedings in the said cause and that an attachment be granted to
ci niipel the same.

"Ordered that this Court be adjourned until the next term thereof, [Oct.

"] ) win Irvix. Judge."

At the October term a jury was called in the case of McKaig vs. Will-
iams, and the trial resulted in a verdict for the defendant. The jurors were
John S. Boyd, John Byrd, William Carter, Thomas Gates, Alonzo Crow.
Cyrus Horton, George W. Kendall (foreman). Abel Neff. Soldatl I'owcrs.
David Pratt. Morris Ross, and William Stork. The other jurors drawn for
the term were William Bohall, Isaac Burs. .11, Perkins S. Child, David S. |
ing. Thomas Fellows, Solomon Finch. Daniel G. Foster. Daniel llartwell.
Loren K. Jones. Thomas W. Miller, Austin .McCracken. Marcus Mouta g
Benjamin C. Pearce, Horace Smith. Nelson Spoor, Ebenezer Tupper, Elijah
\\'< 'rthington.

The grand jurors at this term were Joseph Marker. Asa Blood, Deodal
Brewster, Alexander H. Bunnell. Jacob Burgit, Richard Chenery, George
Clark. Christopher Douglass. Norman C. Dyer, Charles M. Goodsell, Morris
F. Hawes, Mason Dicks. Willard I'.. Johnson, John Lippit, James Maxwell
(foreman), Urban D. Meacham. Amos Older, Samuel F. Phoenix, Samuel
Prince. John Reader. Jacob ' i. Sanders. ||, Smith Young, Robert Young.
William P.. Lewis was indicted for larceny am i Reub trandei ;

jury. The case against Lewis was dismissed \ nolle prosequi was entered
in the case against Ostrander, it having been shown that Squire McKaig, who
had committed him for trial, was a but half-naturalized citizen. The lot
term of the territorial court opened May 22, [848, and adjourned without .-,
day June 3d. Beyond the short roll of attorneys adn 1 Wisconsin

practice there is little of historic interest in the clerk's journal of the court's
proceedings.

74 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

ROLL OF ATTORNEYS, 1 839- 1 848.

Delavan — William C. Allen. Stephen S. Barlow, Milo Kelsey, 1842;
William H. Pettit.

East Troy — Alender O. Babcock.

Elkhorn — Lyman Cowdery, 1848; Edward Elderkin, 1839; George Gale,
1841 ; Wyman Spooner, 1S42; Horatio S. Winsor, 1841.

Geneva — Charles M. Baker, 1839; Experience Estabrook, 1840; James
Simmons, 1843.

Spring Prairie — Charles D. Pulver, 1842.

Troy — Urban D. Meacham.

Whitewater— Prosper Cravath, 1845; Warner Earle, Frederick C. Pat-
terson, 1844; Eleazar Wakeley.

Residence unknown — Charles Aiken, 1845; Thomas D. Grant.

One case in this court was made widely famous, for the period of a
half generation of men, from the humorous account of it given by Andrew
E. Elmore, long known as the Sage of Mukwonago, in a speech (as member
of Assembly) at the legislative session of 1859 or i860, in support of a bill for
abolishing all laws for collection of debts. From the sale of a yoke of oxen,
somewhere in Jefferson county, grew a suit which, by new trials, changes of
venue, and other useful devices, was prolonged until the costs amounted to
more than the price of many yoked or unyoked oxen. Mr. Elmore was of
the counsel in this cause when one of its changes of venue brought it to
Elkhorn. He explained to his fellow legislators that he had learned from ob-
servation or information that if one would win his cause in Judge Irvin's
court he must go hunting with His Honor, praise '"York," His Honor's
horse, regardless of truth or likelihood, or feed and fondle "Pedro," His Hon-
or's dog. Mr. Elmore made "Pedro" think him a true friend, and so far
prospered in court as to obtain a favorable ruling on his motion for a new
trial of the cattle case. As the Judge gave his instruction to the clerk, "Pe-
dro" made awkwardly fn-c with his new friend, who, a little annoyed, gave
the brute a kick. The Judge saw the action and heard the yelp for redress.
Before the clerk had begun to enter the ruling just made the Judge reversed
it. "Mr. Speaker, that kick cost me live hundred dollars!" This speech was
published in most of the newspapers of America and of Great Britain and her
colonies, and was included in various selections for the use of young elo-
cutionists. The fame thus accruing to Mr. Elmore was not boughl much
too dearly at its cost to him.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 75

"At a term of the Circuit Court in and for the County of Walworth
begun and held at the Court House in Elkhorn on the first Monday, the sec-
ond day of October, A. D. 1848. Present the Hon. Edward V. Whiton, judge
of said Court." So begins Air. Clerk's journal. The first cause called for
trial was that of Edwin Hodges vs. Henry Bradley et al. ; George Gale for
the defense. The case was continued at defendant's cost. The grand jurors
were Oramel Armstrong, Robert Augier, John A. Baird, Leander Birge, Deo-
dat Brewster, George Dann, Jared Fox. Lewis B. Goodsell, llcnn II. Hart-
son, Elias Hibbard (foreman), Linus Merrill, Zenas Ogden, Isaac Raymond,
Moses Seymour, Sewall Smith. Henry J. Starin, Jeremiah Wilcox. The
names of men who attended court and drew pay and mileage as petit jurors
were: Calvin M. Ashley, John W. Boyd, Jesse Brown, Alonzo A. Bryant,
William Burgit, Joseph N. Cahoon, Cyrus Church, John DeGarmo, William
DeWolf, George W. Dorrance. Charles Garfield, Samuel Gregory, Jacob R.
Kling, Ansel Knowles, John Mereness, Silas Patten, Robert K. Potter, Martin
O. Pulver, John Raleigh, Sherman M. Rockwood, Isaac Searl, George Sewell,
George W. Sturges, Augustus Taintor, Isaac White, Anderson Whiting,
Robert J. Wood.

The several judges of the first circuit were as follows:

Edward Vernon Whiton, Janesville 1849

Wvman Spooner, Elkhorn, appointed 1853

James Rood Doolittle, Racine 1854

Charles Minton Baker, Geneva, appointed March 1856

John Martin Keep, Beloit, elected April 1856

David Xoggle 1858

William Penn Lyon, Racine [866

Robert Harkness, Elkhorn 1 87 1

' Ira T. Paine, Racine, appointed March 1S75

John Theodore Wentworth, Lake < ieneva, June 1875

John Bradley Winslow, Racine 1884

Frank M. Fish, Racine 1891

Ellsworth Burnett Belden, Racine

Judge Whiton became chief justice of the Wisconsin 51 court in

June, 1853. Mr. Spooner was appointed by Governor Farwell and held one
term of court in this county. At the November election of thai year to till
the vacancy for the remainder of the term of office, Mr. Spooner was
feated by Mr. Doolittle, whose service began in the following January, In

j6 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

1856. after holding the January term of court. Judge Doolittle resigned and
earlv in March Governor Barstow appointed Mr. Baker, who held the April
court term for Racine county. March 25th a Republican convention for the
circuit, at Delavan, on its ninth ballot, named John M. Keep, of Beloit, who
was elected in April and presided at the May term of court. He resigned
in May, 1858, and David Noggle was first appointed and then elected. Judge
Lyon was transferred to the supreme bench, January, 1871. Mr. Harkness
resigned in March, 1875, and went for his health to Salt Lake City. Judge
Paine never presided at Elkhorn, but held spring terms at Kenosha and Ra-
cine. Mr. Wentworth passed up from the circuit clerk's desk to the bench,
and soon after his election became a citizen of Racine. After 1884 he be-
came police judge at that city and died February 7, 1893. Judge Fish re-
signed, went to Texas, returned and died in a sanitarium at Stevens Point.
Tanuarv 10, 1908. Judge Lyon, now nearly blind, but otherwise in fair
health, lives near San Francisco. Judge Harkness is living, and Judge Wins-
low is on duty as chief justice of the Wisconsin supreme court.

ROLL OF ATTORNEYS FROM 1848.

Darien — Joseph F. Lyon. 1871 ; Calvin Serl, Archibald Woodard.

Delavan — Alanson H. Barnes, 1854; D. Bennett Barnes, 1885; J. V.
Bradway, 1857; Henry W. Clark, Edward E. Clippinger, 1884; Augustus J.
Fiedler, 1878; Frederick B. Goodrich, 1888; Charles S. Griffin, 1862; Nicholas
M. Harrington. 1862; Alphonso G. Kellam, 1859; Frederick E. Latimer,
1878; Thomas M. McHugh, 1849: Newton McGraw, Daniel B. Maxson,
1861; Robert R. Menzie. 1849; silas W. Menzie, 1866; William C. Norton,
1856: H. D. Patchen, [858; Arthur L. Shader, 1873; Hiram T. Sharp. 1864;
Charles B. Sumner, 1886; Charles J. Sumner, Alfred D. Thomas, [863;
Ernest L. Von Suessmilch, 1890.

East Troy — Henry Cousins, 1852; John Fraser, [859; James D. Mer-
rill, 1868; John F. Potter, 1852.

Elkhorn — Seth L. Carpenter, 1857; James Densmore, 1855; H. Seymour
Dunlap, 1881; Henry M. Eastman, 1849; George M. Ferris, 1907; John L.
Forrest, 1855; Peter Golder, [850; Anthony Caspar Graff, [888; Charles
Daniel Handy, [858; Robert Harkness. 1S5S; Del. C. lfunfoou, 1890; Levi
W. Lee, [86i ; Jay F. Lyon, [888; W. Clarence Norton, T900; Jay W. Page.
[899; James Redneld, [859; Arthur L. Sanborn, 187S; Harley F. Smith,
1850; Edward II. Sprague, [878; Elnathan S. Weeden, [872; Jaynes B.
Wheeler, 187(1: Curtis H. Winsor, [868; Fernando Winsor, Frank 11. Win-
sor, [888.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. "]-J

Lake Geneva — L. L. Baxter, 1854; Dr. Hilton \Y. Boyce, 1857; Lewis G.
Brown, 1897; Hugh A. Burdick, 1889; Asa W. Farr, [853; Charles S. French,
1879; Daniel E. Sherman, 1870; John Bell Simmons, 1873 ; John A. Smith,
1865; Stephen Bemis Van Buskirk, 1858; John T. Wentworth, Albert T.
Wheeler.

Linn — John P. Ingalls, Wallace Ingalls.

Lyons — Elbert Osborn Hand, 1851): Robert Holley.

Richmond — A. B. Webber.

Sharon — Fayette P. Arnold. 1859; (hark- II. Bronson, 1872; John T.
Fish, 1859; Wilson L. Shunk, 1884.

Whitewater — Samuel Bishop, 1865; Jedidiali Brown, Robert C. Bulkley,
1906; Edwin Thomas Cass, 1878; Elliott D. Converse, 1864; E. Wood
Comes, 1857; Pitt N. Cravath, 1865; Henry J. Curtice. 1X55; Frank X.
Fryer. Hubert O. Hamilton, X. Augustus Hamilton, 1859; Henn Heady,
1873; Edson Kellogg, James G. Kestol, 1883: X. Alphonso Millard, I lenry
Oreb Montague, 1859; X'ewton S. Murphey, 1856; Joseph II. Page, r866;
James D. Robinson, 1864; Hariy O. Seymour, George W. Steele, 1869; Paul
II. Tratt, 1902; Thompson D. Weeks, 1859.

Philip V. Coon. 1868, William E. Sheffield, 1862, and Stephen S.
Sibley, 1856, are not now assignable to any town. There are about fifty
names recorded of men who are not known to have lived in the county, or,
such as did live here went elsewhere to find practice. None of these arc
now of the Walworth bar. nor are there many here named who yel abide with
us. Most of the dates wanting are likeliest to be recorded in other counties,
of this or other states. It may be that none but a non-resident lawyer could
grade justly these learne«l gentlemen, or place them in order of their profes-
sional worth: but it may be permissible to name some of those who have died
or are now far away, to whom contemporary judgment accorded sonic qual-
ities of leadership at the bar of the circuit. Among these, then, were Messrs.
Babcock, Baker, Barlow. A. H. Barnes, Estabrook, Fish, Gale, Harkm
Kellam, McHugh, Meacham, Menzie, Murphey. Sanborn, James Simmons,
H. F. Smith. Wvman Spooner, C. B. Sumner, Thomas, Wakeley, Week-. II
S. Winsor.

The last grand juror li-t was made b) the county board in [872 for the
following vear's service, but the judge may make ami tile an order for sum-
moning a grand jury under statutory provisions. In [897 it became a judicial
function to appoint a commission of three members for the duty of selecting
and reporting a list of citizens for service as petit juroi 5. I me member is

y8 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

pointed each year and serves three years. Thus far five men have performed
this service: Mortimer T. Park, of Elkhorn, 1897-9; John E. Menzie, La-
grange, 1897-1911 ; John W. Brownson, Sharon, 1897-1912; George R. Allen,
Bloomfield. 1899-1901 ; John G. Meadows, Lyons, 1901-13.

CHAPTER X.

OFFICIAL K<» | | k.

Since the admission of Wisconsin to statehood citizens of this county
have shared but moderately in the honors of high place in federal or in slate
government. John Fox Potter, of East Troy, was a member of the national
House of Representatives from 1857 to 1863, six years of a memorably ex-
citing period of American politics. He stood manfully, in his first and sec-
ond term, for freedom of debate, and in his third term was of that group of
western members who enjoyed the close personal as well as political friend-
ship and confidence of President Lincoln. Defeated in 1862 by unfriendly in-
fluences in Milwaukee and Waukesha, as he thought, he was offered and he
refused the Danish mission. But he accepted the consul-generalship at Mon-
treal, after the death of Joshua R. Giddings at that post, and resigned it he-
fore the end of the Johnson administration. His latest successor in Con-
gress. Henry Allen Cooper, of Racine, was born at Spring Prairie (a son of
Dr. Joel H. Cooper), and has served continuously from 1893. Experience
Estabrook, of Geneva, went to Nebraska, and in 1859- claimed a seat in Con-
gress as territorial delegate, but was not seated.

Eleazar Wakeley, of Whitewater, went to Omaha, and became a Federal
judge. Alanson H. Barnes, of Delavan, by General Grant's appointment, was
for four years a judge of the territorial court of Dakota. Alfred D. Thomas,
his son-in-law, was appointed in 1890 as judge of the federal district court
of North Dakota. Arthur Loomis Sanborn, now federal judge for the
western district of Wisconsin, was appointed in [905. I lis boyhood and youth
were passed at Lake Geneva, lie came in 1869 to Elkhorn as assistant to
Register Noyes, whom he succeeded in office. Having in his leisure hours
grounded himself thoroughly in the principles of ancient and modem law, he
was admitted to practice nearly at the close of his four years as a county
officer. At the end of his term he went to Madison, where he formed mosl
advantageous professional connection- and passed readily into the higher
practice of his profession.

George Gale was a pioneer lawyer at Elkhorn, and about [855 again a
pioneer of Trempealeau county, where he founded the villagi ol Galesville.

80 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

His new home was in the sixth judicial circuit and he soon became its judge.
Both at Elkhorn and at Galesville he was a pioneer editor and publisher.
Like Chancellor Walworth, he compiled a genealogy of his family. William
Penn Lyon came in his boyhood to Hudson, served his town as justice of
the peace, removed to Racine, became successively district attorney, judge
for the circuit, associate justice, and chief justice of the supreme court. Al-
phonso G. Kellam studied law at Elkhorn, practiced at Delavan, served in
the Civil war as captain and as major, went to South Dakota, and became the
first chief justice of the supreme court of that state.

George Wilbur Peck, governor of Wisconsin, 1891-95, was for some
years a printer at Delavan and at Whitewater. Butler G. Noble, of White-
water, was elected lieutenant-governor over Dr. Alexander S. Palmer, of
Geneva, in 1859. Wyman Spooner was twice speaker of the Assembly, hav-
ing been sent in 1862 to the state Senate, he became its president, and the
death of Governor Harvey made him acting lieutenant-governor, to which
post he was twice elected by the people. The first man who served Wis-
consin as its secretary of state was Thomas M. McHugh, of Delavan. son of
Rev. Stephen McHugh of the Episcopal clergy, who was also a resident of the
county. Secretary McHugh had served the last territorial Assembly as chief
clerk of the Council. He was educated and able, but neither at the bar nor
elsewhere ever quite fulfilled the hope of his friends. Samuel D. Hastings had
moved from Geneva to Trempealeau county a short time before his election as
state treasurer in 1857, which place he held for four terms. He afterward
served the Prohibitionist party as one of its candidates for some high place,
for him not in that wav attainable. Experience Estabrook, while yet of Gene-
va, served from 1852 to 1854 as attorney-general. Stephen S. Barlow, of
Delavan, went to Sauk county and thence to the same office, 1870-1874. Capt.
Almerin Gillette, of Hudson, and of the Twentieth Wisconsin Infantry, went
to Kansas, where he became railway commissioner. Orville T. Bright, as
boy and young man, lived in that part of the town of Geneva which lies near-
est Elkhorn. After a term as county superintendent of schools he went to
Chicago where he was for many years city superintendent. Since 1903
Charles P. Carv has been in continuous service as state superintendent of
public instruction, lie was elected from Delavan, where he was then chief
officer nf the state's school i"v the deaf.

The first constitutional convention of Wisconsin met October 5. 1846.
and adjourned December io. 1846. Its work was rejected at the election held

April 5, T847, by °^000 majority. The vote of this county was: For, 984;

against, 2,027. The second convention met December 15. 1847. and ad-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 8 1.

journed February i, [848. At the election, March 13, [848, its work was
adopted by 10.000 majority. The county's vmr was: For, [,323; against,
574. Walworth's representatives in these conventions were as follows:

FIRST CONVENTION.

Charles Minton Maker. Geneva: William Bell, Walworth: William Berry,
Spring Prairie; Joseph Bowker. Delavan; John William Boyd, I. inn; Lyman
Hunt Seaver, Darien; Josiah Topping, Sharon; Solmous Wakeley, White-
water.

SECOND CONVENTION.

Experience Estabrook. Geneva; George Gale. Elkhorn; James Harring-
ton, Spring Prairie; Augustus Caesar Kinne, Sugar Creek; Mollis Latham,
Elkhorn; Dr. Ezra Ames Mulford, Walworth.

It has been told that the first constitution was rejected for causes too
complex for easily explaining. This may be true, but there was and is a gen-
eral impression that the principal cause lay in article X, section 1, the whole
text of which was: "There shall be no bank of issue within this state." The
six other sections were more specific in terms, but were of like import. Article
XI, sections 4 and 5, of the constitution adopted, in effect, referred the qu
tion of bank to popular vote. In November, 1N51. this county voted with
the rest of the state to permit banks of issue by 2,054 yeas to 229 na) -

Walworth count\ has been represented bv her own citizens on the bench
of the first judicial circuit, first by Wyman Spooner of Elkhorn, whom I \o
ernor Farwell appointed in [853, Judge Whiton having become chief just
of the supreme court, and he held the fall term of court in each count)' of
the circuit. At the November election James R. Doolittle, of Racine, defi at d
Judge Spooner as a candidate for the rest of the unexpired term. On fudge
Lyon's transference from the circuit bench to that of the higher court, Robert
Harkness, of Elkhorn, succeeded, and his own resignation, in March. 1875,
opened the way to John Theodore Wentworth, of Geneva, who was elected
in April and held the June term of court for thai year. I le removed to Racine
and was rechosen in [877 and served until January, [884, having been de-
feated by John Bradley Winslow, now chief justice of the supreme court

In the territorial period judges of prol "• were appointed. Under state
government county judges are chosen at Vpril el for terms of four

years, beginning first Monday of January following. The dati n in tin-

several official list- arc term beginnings.

(6)

82 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

PROBATE JUDGES.

Joseph Griffin Geneva June 4, 1840

John Fox Potter East Troy March 26, 1842

William Cheney Allen Delavan June 24, 1843

Wyman Spooner Elkhom January 26, 1847

COUNTY JUDGES.

William Cheney Allen Delavan January 7. 1850

Lyman Cowdery Elkhom January 14, 1856

John Fox Potter East Troy June 2, 1856

Peter Colder Elkhorn April 30, 1857

Jaynes Bailey Wheeler Elkhorn January 4, 1886

Jay Forrest Lyon Elkhorn January 21,, 1899

Judge Allen having resigned, Governor Barstow appointed Mr. Cow-
dery. Mr. Potter was elected in April for the rest of Allen's term; hut his
own election in November to Congress made another soon-following change.
Judge Colder had served nearly twenty-nine years, when his loss of hearing
compelled his retirement. Judge Wheeler resigned and went to his old home
at or near Rutland, Vermont, and Governor Schofield's appointment, with
three elections for full terms, have prolonged Judge Lyon's tenure of this
now more than ever before important office to January, 1914.

COURT COMMISSIONERS.

Court commissioners have been appointed by the several circuit judges,
but the record of these officers is not found for the period previous to [867.
A few names are mentioned incidentally in other records, and these are in-
cluded without exact date of the terms: William C. Allen, i8(k;; Charles
M. Baker, Alanson 11. Barnes, [861; Dwight Bennett Barnes, [893; Pitt
Noble Cravath, [891; Prosper Cravath, between [862 and [875; Christo-
pher Douglass, 1842; George Gale, 1S42; Peter Golder, [856; Charles E.
Griffin, [866; Henrj Heady, between 1N75 and [892; Robert Holley, [841;
loseph F. Lyon, between [884 and [893; Silas W. Menzie, between [870 and
[885; Henrj O. Montague, 1 86 1 ; James Simmons, between 1N71 and [893;

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 83

Alfred S. Spooner, between 1872 and [893; Ernesl L. von Suessmilch, [895;
Charles B. Sumner. [891; Solmous Wakeley, [861; form T. Wentworth,
1863: Albert T. Wheeler. 1861.

State and county officers are elected in November for a term beeinnin?
the first Monday of January following.

STATE SENATORS.

John William Boyd Linn 1848-9, [858 9

( leorge Gale Elkhorn [850 1

Eleazar Wakeley Whitewater 1 852-5

Dr. Jesse Carr Mills Elkhorn [856-7

*Dr. Oscar F. Bartlett East Tn >y [860-]

Wyman Spooner Elkhorn 1862-3

Newton M. Littlejohn Whitewater [86

Samuel Pratt Spring I 'rairie 1870-3

Thompson Dimock Weeks Whitewater [874-5, [893 6

Asahel Farr Kenosha [876-7

*Dr. Benoni Orrin Reynolds Lake ( ieneva 1 878 1 1

Joseph Very Quarles Kenosha [880- ]

*Charles Palmetier Lake Geneva 1882-4

Walter S. Maxwell Kenosha [885-8

Dr. James Constant Reynolds Lake Geneva [889-92

Albert Solliday Watertown 1807-8

John Harrison Harris Elkhorn [899-1902

Zadock Pratt Beach Whitewater [903-6

John A. Hazelwood Jefferson [907 to

Charles A. Snover Jefferson mi 1 1 1

The constitutional amendment of [882, making legislative sessions bi-
ennial and elections for state and comity offices fall in even-numbered years.
added a year to terms of all such officers as were chosen in the previous yg
There was no legislative session for [884. Two apportionments between
1890 and [900 changed the number of this senate district from even to odd
and thus Mr. Solliday sat in but one session for the joint district. Drs. I'.. ' »
and J. C. Reynolds are respectively father and son. Names marked' * are
of soldiers of the Civil war. who are s, , denoted in all the following official
lists.

84 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

MEMBERS OF ASSEMBLY.

Abell, Alfred H Geneva 1877

Aldrich, Alma Montgomery Spring Prairie 1878

* Allen, Dwight Sidney Linn 1889

Allen, George Linn 1855

Allen, George Rue Bloomfield 1880

Allen, Lucius Spring Prairie 1864

Allen, William Cheney Delavan 1866-7

Allen, William P Sharon 1854

Arnold, Fayette P Sharon 1862

Babcock, Alender O East Troy 1850

Baker, James East Troy 1858

Barlow, Stephen Steele Delavan 1852

Barnes, Dwight Bennett Delavan 1880- 1

*Bartlett, Dr. Oscar F East Troy 1853-4

Bell, John Lafayette 1853

Benson, Schuyler Ward Bloomfield 1861

*Blanchard, Dr. Caleb Sly East Troy 1880

*Boyce, Dr. Hilton W Geneva 1862

*Brownson, John W Sharon 1882

Buckbee, Francis A Geneva 1867-1874

Bunker, Nathaniel Mead Troy 1875

Burgit, William East Troy 1870-1874

Chapin, William Densmore Bloomfield 1856

Cheney, Rufus, Jr Whitewater 1850

Child, James Lafayette i860

Clough, Darwin P Darien 1899

Cochrane, William Avery Delavan 1803

*Coe, Edwin Delos Whitewater 1S78-9

Conrick, Edward P Delavan 1859

Cooper. Dr. Joel Henry Spring Prairie 1S52

Cravath, Prosper Whitewater 1848

Davis, Thomas Sugar Creek 1863-6

Derthick. Waller ( leorge Lafayette [882

1 )ewing, Ely Bruce Elkhorn 1879

De Wolf, John Darien i860

Douglass, Carlos Lavallette Walworth 1873

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 85

Dow, Everett E Lagrange igoi

Dunlap, Charles Geneva 1875

Easton. Elijah Walworth 1851, [858

Edgerton, Stephen R Lafaj ette 1870

Estabrook, Experience Geneva iS; 1

*Farr, Asa W Geneva 1856

Fellows, Timothy Hopkins Bloomfield ^^2-3

Foster, George H Whitewater [863

Fraser, Frank L East Tn >y 1893-6

Goff, Sidney Clayton Elkhorn 1 < 1 1 1

( iraves. Gaylord East Troy [848

( ireening, William Lagrange 1 8, ,-

( irier. Thomas S Bloomfield 18-15

Groesbeck, Benjamin F Linn 1865

Hall, Henry Walworth 1 >

Harrington, Perry Green Sugar Creek 185 |

Hastings. Samuel Dexter Geneva iS p,

Hazard, Enos J Lagrange 1849

Heminway. Henry C Richmond 1851

Herron, Wilson R Sharon 1874- 1 877

Hill. Thomas Worden Hudson 1853, 1863

Hooper, Daniel Tl'°.v 1855, 1850. 1 8( >< 1

Hurlbut, Dr. Wrilliam Henry Elkhorn 1897. ' s' >' '

Isham, William Willard Delavan 1X55

letters. John Sharon 1864, 187 r

Johnson, Frank H Darien [905

♦Johnson. John B Darien 1 NS-

*Kellam. Alphonso G Delavan ,8,,,,

Kelsey. Milo Delavan 1848. T8 \g

*Kizer, Fernando Cortez Whitewater 1889, 1801

Kull. Edwin O Bloomfield 1909

Lake. Phipps Waldo Walworth 1854

Latham, Hollis Elkhorn 1.

Lauderdale, James Lagrange [853, 1856

Lee, Levi Elkhorn 1855

Long, Chester Deming Darien 1861

Long, Hugh 1 >arien 1848

Lown, George Hiram Walworth 1

1 ,3 1 m, Joseph Foster Darien 1808

86 WALWOHTII COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

McKibbin, John Linn 1858

Mason, Albert L Sharon 1879

Maxon, Joseph F Walworth 1891

Mead, Zerah Whitewater 1852

Meadows, William Lyons 1881

Merriam, Amzy Linn 1871

*Miller, Dr. Clarkson Geneva i860

Noble, Butler G Whitewater 1858

Palmer, Dr. Alexander S Geneva 1850

Pemberton, John Richmond 1878

Pettit, Paris East Troy 1866

Potter. John Fox East Troy 1856

Pratt, Orris Spring Prairie 1883

Pratt. Samuel Spring Prairie 1849, l855, l863

Ray, Adam E East Troy 185 1

Ray, George A Lagrange 1868

Raymi >nd, Shepard O Geneva 1866

* Reynolds, Dr. Benoni Orrin Lake Geneva . . . . 1876

Reynolds, Dr. James Constant Lake Geneva 1885, 1887

Richardson, Erasmus Darwin Geneva 1848

Rockwell, Reuben Hudson 1859

*Roundy, Dr. Daniel C Geneva 1864

Seaver, Joseph Warren Darien 1853

Seymour. Robert Thompson Lafayette 1856

Sharp, Elijah Matteson Delavan 1872, 1875

Sikes, George Sharon 1850

*Smith, Albert E Delavan 1901-4

Smith, Daniel Richmond 1864

Smith, Francis Sugar Creek t86l

: Smith. John A Geneva [868, [869

Smith. Lindsey Joseph Troy 1881

Spafard, Simeon W Geneva 1854

Spooner, Wyman Elkhom 1850-1, 1S57. 1N01

Sprague, Edward Harvey Elkhorn 1907

Stafford, Amos Wagrnan Bloomfield 1872

Stearns, 1 )aniel Mansfield Sugar Creek 1876

Stewart, \11drew J Richmond 1887

Stew art. Donald Sugar Creek 1882. 1883

Sturtevant, Charles Holmes Delavan 1863

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN". 87

Teeple, Charles S Darien 1876

Thomas, Salmon Darien 1856

*Tilton, Hezekiah C Sharon [865

Voorhees, Samuel Wood Sharon '857

Wakeley. Solmous Whitewater 1855, [856, 1857

Weeks. Thompson Dimock Whitewater [867

White, Samuel Austin Whitewater 1N71. [872

Whiting, Anderson Richmond 1854, [860

Williams, David Geneva [857

Winsor, Horatio Sales Elkhorn [865

Wood. Lewis X Walworth 1852

The names of physicians in this list and the next one show that the pro
fession, as practiced here, did not regard politics and medicine as incompatible,
the one with the other; and the Civil war found ;un >tlier field for their activity.
George and Dwight S. Allen were father and son, as were Hugh and Chester
D. Long. Samuel and Orris Pratt and Solmous and Eleazar Wakeley, the
latter of the State Senate. A. E. and J. A. Smith were brothers. .Mr. Tilton
was a Methodist clergyman.

CHAIRMEN OF COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.

Capron, John M Geneva [842

Mills. Dr. Jesse Carr Spring Prairie (843

Graves, Gaylord East Troy [843

Magoon, Dr. Oliver C Whitewater 1* I I

Bell, Nathaniel Lafayette [845, (846

Farnum, John Allen Geneva [846

Gale, George Elkhorn 1847, |SIS

Ray. Adam E Troy 1849, |S5''- l857

Snell. John Peter Linn 1850

Winsor, Horatio Sales Elkhorn (851

1 1 tton, George Darien 1852

Rockwell. LeGrand Elkhorn

Frost. Eli Kimball Sugar I reek • x54- 's55

Conrick. Edward P I >elavan ■ t8j8, [859

Hodges. Edwin Elkhorn [860, r86l

Sturtevant. Charles Holmes I )elavan

Hill, Thomas Worden Hudson 1863, [864, [865

88 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Allen, George Linn 1866

Allen, Lucius Spring Prairie 1867

Seymour, Robert Thompson Lafayette 1868. 1873

Chapin. William Densmore Bloomfield 1869. 1881

Richardson, Erasmus Darwin Geneva 1870

Lyon, Joseph Foster Darien 1871, 1872

Boyd, John William Linn 1874

Williams, David Darien 1875

DeWolf, John Darien 1876

Treat. Julius Allen Sharon 1877. 1882

Bishop, Matthew P LaGrange 1878. 1879

* Allen, Dwight Sidney Linn 1880. 1883-90

Allen. George Rue Bloomfield 1891-97

Barr, George W Linn 1898-1902

Douglass, Carlos Stewart Walworth 1903. 1910

Christie, George Darien 191 1

Messrs. Bell, Gale, Winsor, Cotton, Rockwell and Treat were Demo-
crats. Messrs. Mills. Cotton, Conrick, Lucius Allen, Lyon and Williams had
been or were afterward citizens of other towns than those here named.

The order of county officers as prescribed by statute for printing official
ballots is: County clerk (for many years named "clerk of the board of su-
pervisors"), county treasurer, sheriff, coroner, clerk of circuit and county
court, district attorney, register of deeds, county surveyor. The older ar-
rangement had been in the order of their desirability for candidates. This
placed sheriff, register of deeds and treasurer at and next to the head of the
tickets and the coroner at the foot. Since 1883 their biennial terms have
begun on the first Monday of January, in odd-numbered years. Since 1905
the superintendents of schools have been chosen the first Tuesday of April
and begun their terms on the first Monday of July.

COUNTY CLERKS.

McCraken, Volney Anderson Lagrange 1839

Latham, Hollis Elkhorn 1840, 1841. [843

Kelsey, Milo (old board) Delavan 1842

Fish, John (new board) Delavan 1842

1 lodges, Edwin Elkhorn 1846

Thompson, Albert A Linn 1847

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 89

Frost. Eli Kimball Sugar Creek [848

Cowdery, Lyman Elkhorn 185 J

Sibley. Charles W Bioomfield 1 853

Dewing. Myron Edwin Elkhorn 1857 1 87 (

Dewing, Ely Bruce (deputy) Elkhorn 1871

Cowdery. Dyar Lamotte Elkhorn 1 X75- k>oo

Clough, William E. (deputy) Darien 1900

Harrington, Grant Dean Delavan 1901-1913

Myron E. Dewing died March 26, 1 S 7 | . and his brother served till the
end of the year. The Cowderys were father and son. The latter died May
10. 1900. The records of this office have suffered little from fading and dis-
coloration, and are generally easily legible. Mr. Thompson's records art'
pleasant to look upon for their neat handwriting and their clerical form. At
two years old, Myron E. Dewing lost the ringers of both hands by burning in
the embers of a rubbish fire. He learned to write a bold, business-like hand.
and early reached a surprising degree of expertness in many things that
usually require unmaimed fingers. His aptitude for the duties of his place
made him almost indispensable to the county board. His two successors bet
tered his excellent example, and, since 1903, the board's proceedings have
been neatly and accurately typewritten.

COUNTY TREASURERS.

Hollinshead, William I Via van 1838. 1839

Norris, Edward Delavan [839, [840

Spooner. Jeduthun Sugar Creek [842

Winsor, Horatio Sales Elkhorn ri

Lee, Levi Elkhorn 1844

Bellows, Curtis Elkhorn [845

Mallory, Samuel Elkhorn 1846

Hartson, Henry Hobart Elkhorn 1847, 1 853 1

Latham, Hollis Elkhorn [852

T Iandy. Daniel Parmelee Geneva 1

Brett, John Flavel Elkhorn [81

McGraw, Newton Delavan 1X67-8

Fairchild, David Lupe Walworth [869-76

Blomiley, Fred W Lagrange 1877-82

Lauderdale. James Henry Elkhorn [81

90 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

*Church, Leonard Cyrus Walworth 1887-92

Clough, William E ,. . . Darien 1893-6

Allen. William H Bloomrleld 1897-1900

Farley. William E Lyons 1901-04

Foot, Harry H Sharon 1905-7

Foot, Clinton H. (deputy) Sharon 1908

\"< >rris, Harley Cornelius Elkhorn 1909-12

Since 1893 the treasurer has been limited by statute to two terms of con-
tinuous service. Mr. Foot died at Elkhorn, June I, 1908, and his son com-
pleted the term of office.

SHERIFFS.

Walling, Sheldon Geneva 1839

Mallory, Russell H Geneva 1841

May, William K Bloomfield 1 843

Bell, Nathaniel Lafayette 1845

Preston, Otis Spring Prairie 1848

Carver, Philetus S Delavan 1851

Crumb, Joseph Clark Walworth 1853

Gates, Joseph Geneva 1855

Perry, John Adams Troy 1857

Stone, Hiram A Darien 1859-60. 1867-8

*Wylie, George Washington Lafayette 1861-2, 1865-6, [881-2

Billings, Seth M Whitewater 1863-4

Humphrey, William Sharon 1869-70

Fay, Charles G Whitewater 1871-2

Tayl< t. ( "\ rus P Lyons I&73-4, 1877-8

*Goff, Sidney Calkins East Troy 1 ^7^-^

Babcock, Stephen S Delavan 1879-80, [883-4

Derthick, John Henry Spring Prairie [885-6, iS<>i-2

Wiswell, George Nelson Elkhorn 1887-8

* Foster, Lewis George Lake Geneva 1889-00, 1893-4

I [ollister, Seth Henry Delavan 1895-6, 1899-1900

McMillan, Fred Alonzo Whitewater 1897-8

\\ hite, Edgar E Elkhorn 1901-2, 1907-8

*Flanders, Joseph Taylor Lyons ,. . . 1903-4, 1909

Harrington, George L Lafayette 1905-6, 1910

I'iper, John Darien 191 1-13

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. f)t

Sheriff Flanders died suddenly at tea-table, December [6, [909, and ox-
Sheriff Harrington was appointed by Governor Davidson to serve until mh 1.
Mr. Goff is the oldest living ex-sheriff. Babcock and Wiswell arc dead. At
the end of Wiswell's term he was appointed United States marshal for east-
ern Wisconsin. He had held the post of sergeant-at-arms of the Republican
national convention of 1900, at Philadelphia.

The rather shadowy line of coroners began in [839 with Hollis Latham.
A single function, that of serving papers on the sheriff, if occasion requires,
is about all that is left belonging to these statutory but unsalaried and practi-
cally unfee'd officers, for justices of the peace may and usually do held in-
quests. A statute of 1875 seemed a little more favorable I" coroners, but
still left their pay to the judgment or liberality of county boards of supei
visors. William H. Bell, then of Elkhorn, had been elected in 1874, but,
according to usage, had not "qualified." He now hastened to take the oath
of office, and to ask the board at its November session to make the place

w < '

rth the holding

His memorial, petition, or "sifnication" was received as soberly as possi
hie. and the sum of fifteen dollars was the salary fixed. Since [848 the
coroners elected were, in that year, Horace Noble Hay, and thereafter
David Williams. Samuel Pratt, William 11. 1'ettit. John B. Hutchiris, Dr.
Daniel C. Roundy, G. C. Gardner. Julius A. Treat, Henry Adkins, G. C.
Gardner (again), Wellington Hendnx. Abram G. I. Hand. Charles D. Root,
William H. Bell, Charles Lysander Lyon. Mr. Bell was cho.cn at four
successive elections (the last one 111 [880), and Mr. Lyon has been elected
biennially from 1882 to 1910, and has given his official bond and taken
his oath of office for fifteen terms. From [848 to 1906, in which latter year
primarv elections put aside the old machinery of nominations. Republii
county conventions, whose work was always ratified at the November polls.
struggled titanically to determine majorities lor their nominees until n
the lower end of the ticket. Then, weaned of their almost deadly earn
ness, they ended their work in the smoke of cigars (passed aboul by success
ful candidates), with an acclamation for some worthy citizen who least
looked for such honor. The nomination for coroner was thus a tired con

vention's return to care free g 1 humor. Mr. Lyon's acceptance of h

fortune was at first his part of the joke, and it afterward became his ha
As turnkev and deputy under several sheriffs he was dear headed and r<
lute. Though now more than "eighty years young," he is yet the Yorick ol
county officers. The late Joseph F. Lyon was his brother.

92 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

CLERKS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT.

Pettit, William Harrison Elkhorn 1849-54

Cousins, Henry East Troy 1855-60

Simmons, James Geneva 1861-70

Wentworth, John Theodore Geneva 1871-5

Lyon, Joseph Foster Darien jS/Sv

* Allen, Levi E Sharon 1878-84

Keats, Washington Sidney East Troy 1885-8

Dewing. Ely Bruce Elkhorn 1889-94

Morgan, Theron Rufus Darien 1895-1905

Kellogg, George Olney Whitewater 1905-12

Mr. Morgan died September 28, 1905, and Mr. Kellogg filled out the
term by appointment. Mr. Wentworth became circuit judge in June. 1875.
ami he appointed Mr. Lyon to serve till the next election.

DISTRICT ATTORNEYS.

Baker, Charles Minton Geneva 1839

Estabrook, Experience Geneva 1S41

Barlow, Stephen Steele Delavan 1845. T<C!5-

Meacham. Urban Duncan East Troy 1849

Spooner, Alfred Stephens Delavan 1854. 1856. 1878

Smith. Harley Flavel (acting) Elkhorn 1854

Wentworth, John Theodore Geneva 1858, i860

Murphey, Newton S Whitewater 1862

Babcock, Alender O East Troy 1864

*Harkness, Robert Elkhorn 1865, 1868, 1870

Thomas, Alfred Delavan Delavan 1872, 1874. T876

Wheeler, Jaynes Bailey Elkhorn 1S80

Sprague, Edward Harvey Elkhorn 1882

Menzie, Silas W Delavan 1885, 1887

lu-alls, Wallace Sharon 1889. 1891

Sumner, Charles Bennett Delavan 1893, r895. l897

1 [amilton, Hubert O Whitewater 1899

Burdick, Hugh A Lake Geneva 1901, 1903

In-alls, John Peter Walworth 1905. 1907. 1909

Bulkley, Robert C Whitewater 191 1

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 93

Wallace and John P. Ingalls are brothers, the former now of Racine;
the latter was a soldier of the war with Spain. Messrs. Wentworth, llark-
ness, Thomas and Wheeler became judges of various courts.

REGISTERS OF DEEDS.

Rockwell, LeGrand Elkhorn 1 834 j

Davis, Booth Beers Hudson 1 842

Boyd, John S Sugar Creek 1843

Lyon, Isaac Hudson (846

Frost, Eli Kimball Sugar Creek 1847

Long, Chester Deming Darien [851

Perry, John Adams Troy 1853

Adkins, Henry Lagrange *&?r- ' 857

Humphrey. Benjamin Blodgett Geneva 185' >, r86i

Houghton, Otis B Spring Prairie 1863, [805

Lawton, James H Lagrange 1 867

*Noyes, Charles Augustus Geneva 1869, 1871, 1873

Sanborn, Arthur Loomis Geneva l&75> ' ^77

Morrison, William Henry Troy i%79- 1881, 1883

Webster, Joseph Haydn Elkhorn 1885. 1887

Taylor, William Thomas Lagrange 1889. 1891, 1893

*Barnes, Henry D Spring Prairie. 1895, [897, [899, 1901,

[903

1 1' >lmes, Frank G Whitewater [9°5! l9°7

Dunbar. Samuel James Elkhorn 1909, \<>i 1

Mr. Davis had lost both legs by freezing, lit' was a pioneer at Hudson,
but after his term of office had ended he remained a citizen of Elkhorn till
death in 1880. Mr. Noyes, his father's namesake, was a nephew of the pio
neer Warrens of Geneva village and a son-in-law of Benjamin B. Humph
He was a soldier of the Eighth Wisconsin Infantry, and a wound d at

Farmington, Tennessee, crippled him for life. Mr. Morrison became director
of fanners' institutes, and dud al Madison in [893. Mr. Webster 1- a
of the composer, Joseph Philbrick Webster.

COUNTY SURVEYORS.

Norris, Edward Delavan 1839

McKaig, Thomas Morris Geneva 1847

94 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Kelsey, Samuel C Delavan 1853

Tubbs, James Lawrence Lafayette .... 1855 to 1865, 1867, 1869

Beckwith, Warren Geneva 1865, 1871. 1873, T875

Child, James Lafayette 1877 to 1891

Taylor. Ray W Richmond 1891

Child. William Lafayette 1893 to 1905, 191 1

Maxon, Jesse G Walworth 1905

Teeple, George L Whitewater 1907. 1909

James and William Child were father and son. The elder Mr. Child
once said, in the latter half of his long tenure of this office, that while he had
done much professional work within that period, he had been employed
but three times because of his official position. As long as original corner-
stakes of towns and sections left their traces Mr. Tubbs was accounted the
one man in the county surest to find them.

SUPERINTENDENTS OF SCHOOLS.

*Cheney, Augustus Jackman Delavan 1863, 1864

Smith, Osmore R Geneva A pp. March 1 , 1865

Bright, Orville Thomas Geneva 1867

Bright. William H Geneva \pp. Aug. 31, 1868

*Lee, Elon Nelson Delavan 1869

Montague, Melzer Sharon 1871

Ballard, Samuel P Sharon, I App. January 3, 1873 ), 1S74

Isham, Fred Willard Sugar Creek 1876, 1878

Taylor. William R Richmond 1880. 1882

Skeels. John G Sharon 1885

Williams. Leo A Whitewater 1887, 1889, 1891

Taylor. Kay W Richmond l&93i- 1895

Webster, Lillian B Whitewater 1897

Vi iss, John Gustavus Sugar Creek i8gg to 1909

Martin, Helen Elkhorn 1909

Mr. Montague was killed in December, [872 (by sleigh-ride accident),
and Mr. Ballard was appointed to serve till [874, and elected for another
term. The Taylors were father and son. in like order of service. Miss
Webster is mm Mrs. Charles P. Greene, of Elkhorn. This superintendency,
at first something mure than nominal, by slowly, surely, forward steps has
reached a high order of efficiency. Every district in the county, one hundred
and four (besides the graded schools and high schools), is visited yearly and
as much oftener as found necessary.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 95

SUPERINTENDENTS OF POOR AND INSANE.

Gaston. Dr. Norman L Delavan 1852- 1855

Clark Henry B East Troy [852-1854

Williams. David ( Geneva [852-1855

Latham. Hollis Elkhorn [854-1886

Rice, Edwin Mortimer Richmond [855-186]

Gage. Thomas Spring Prairie 1855-186 |

Salisbury, Daniel Spring Prairie [859

Hulce. Elisha Richmond [86l (891

Hill. Thomas Worden Lyons 1864- [879

Dunlap. Charles < Geneva [879 [914

Davis. John Potter Richmond [886-1912

dishing. Joseph H Whitewater 1891-11)01

Spooner. Truman Rollin Whitewater 1001 [913

Hemstreet. Frederick Spring Prairie [912-1915

Mr. Salisbury did not serve and Mr. Gage resumed his place until his
resignation in November, 1864. Air. Hill died May 26, [879, Mr. Latham
February 26, [886, Mr. Hulce September 14. [893, and Mr. Cushing August
31, 1901. The resident managers at the county farm, rather confusingly
called superintendents, have been :

Irish. Earl M 1 >elavan [852

Irish, Joseph E Richmond • [853

French. Charles S ( leneva [855

Gray. Elihu Geneva [856

Gray, Thomas Baker ' Geneva ' s' ' '

Hill, Thomas Worden Lyons '

Dunlap. Charles Geneva [879

Davis. John Potter Richmond 1882

Allen. William II Bloomfield '

Charles. Henry R Whitewater '

Stanford. DeWitt Elkh. >rn

In [887 the county board ordered a tax of one tenth o) a mill for a
soldiers' relief fund and appointed a committee of three ' ivil

war to administer it. The fund has been found more than sufficient
purposes prescribed. The sum used in [910 was one thousand eight hundred
dollars. The members have been:

96 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Knilans, William Allen Whitewater 1888

Allen, Dwight Sidney Linn 1888

Matheson, John Elkhorn 1888

Church, Leonard Cyrus Walworth 1890

Kizer, Fernando Cortez Whitewater 1903

Meadows, John Greenwood Lyons 1908

Mr. Matheson died November 17, 1890. Captain Knilans removed in
1902 to Beloit. Mr. Allen died May 5, 1908.

Under a then recent statute, creating a state civil service commission,
John Gustavus Voss and Albert Clayton Beckwith were appointed, in 1905,
local examiners for the county, to hold their places at the pleasure of the
commission.

CHAPTER XI.

PAST AND PRESENT DIVISIONS OF POLITICAL PARTIES.

Men of New England, New York and northern Ohm me1 in these .six-
teen townships to build up a new community in no way essentially different
from the communities they had just left far eastward. Most of these nun
brought their political ideas, notions, or prejudices with them. They were
Whigs and Democrats, with a few Abolitionists. They might vote, each ac-
cording to his former habit, at elections for delegate in Congress and foi
members of the territorial Assembly: but the record of the county's vote, if
such record was ever preserved, is not found. Judging partly from the
little now known of the sentiments at that time of successful candidate.-, there
seems to have been a small Democratic majority or plurality. The later
comers were mostly from the same states as were the first ground-breakers,
and do not appear to have affected greatly the relative strength of parties. In
the short infancy of the county and its towns it may be supposed that local
affairs had more influence at elections than opinions prescribed by national
conventions on tariff. United States Bank, sub-treasury, and internal impn
ments. Writing of the earlier days, in which he played some pari. Judg I
-ays: "Location of school houses, roads and amounl of tax lev) often made
tqwn elections most spirited of any in the year. Politicians of "Id towns
have no adequate idea of the spirit often manifested in a new town over these
matters. Feuds were got up between leading families that have not passed
away — and similarly throughout the we t." This may be a Macaulayan
"heightened and telling way of putting things, for which allowance must be
made." Whatever may have been the earlier facts as to April and November
elections, the yearly inflow of settlers must have tended more and more t"
clearly-drawn party lines in general elections. At the beginning of state gov-
ernment a new political question had just grown from the annexation of
Mexican territory.

By [848 both Whig and Democratic parties of the Northern states wi
already considerably leavened, as to their members, with the sentiment of
non-extension of slavery, ami the "Wilmot Proviso" bad spoken the word
for Walworth. At the general election of that year, while the electoral vote

(?)

98 WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

of Wisconsin was for Lewi- Cass, this county's vote was 1.494 for Van
Buren ( Free-Soiler,), 804 for Taylor (Whig), 550 for Cass (Democrat).
In 1852 the county vote was 1.432 for Hale (Free-Soiler). 1,141 for Pierce
(Democrat), and 965 for Scott (Whig). In 1856 the returns showed
3,518 for Fremont, 1,297 for Buchanan. 4 for Fillmore. The intermediate
state and congressional elections gave similar results, for at each of these
the Free-Soil candidates were consistently preferred to Whigs or Democrats;
though in 185 1 the Whig candidate for governor. Leonard J. Farwell, was
of the Free-Soil wing of his party and therefore acceptable to Walworth.
When, in 1854. a convention met to organize the Republican party of Wis-
consin. Wynian Spooner was one of the leaders and lights of that high de-
liberation. From that year to 1910 the county's majority has been only for
Republican -policies, measures and candidates. Until i860 the newspapers an-
nounced almost daily the arrival of one or more "prominent Democrats" —
leaders or "wheel horse-" — of some state north of the Ohio and between two
oceans at the all-receiving Republican camp.

At the dissolution of the Whig party a tew of its members joined the
victorious Democracy, but by far the greater number went to the new and
hopeful opposition. It was observed by some of these ex- Whigs that many
converted Democrats were thrusting themselves into Republican leadership
anil finding choice places on Republican ballot- with little or no probation or
delay. Harley F. Smith, a lawyer of Elkhorn, who was both largely toler-
anl and harmlessly satirical, -aid to his Democratic friend Preston, early in
the campaign of [860: "< 'tis, we shall beat you this year, surely." Preston
answered drib'. "Aba!" and asked. "On-w hat-do-you-pred-i-cate-your-
o-pinion?" Smith's answer to this rather grandly-uttered question was:
"Well, we have now taken about all the slippery fellows from your party into
ours." In September. [856, Judge Doolittle, of the first circuit, who had
resigned after the January term of court, was a defeated candidate for nom-
ination at the Democratic congressional convention of the first district. Early
in the following January be was chosen United States senator. Arthur Mc-
Artlmr. the Democratic* president of the state Senate, and Wyman Spooner,
the Republican speaker of the Assembly, refused to sign the certificate of
Doolittle's election. This was "ii the ground that the constitution of Wis-
consin disqualified judges for holding other office within the period for
which the) bad been elected. Bui Doolittle was -cited at Washington, as
Judges Trumbull and Harlan bad been two years earlier, in spite of similar
provision in the Illinois and Iowa constitutions. Of course, some men said
that Mr. McArthur wished to punish Doolittle for his conversion or deser-

W w.w mi; i ii , 01 \ i v. u rs( onsin. 99

tion, and that Judge Spooner wished himself to take Senator Dodge's seat;
but this was measuring great minds by the gauge of small souls.

Before each jostling political atom had as yel settled easily and firmly
into its fitting place in the new political mass some slight personal jarring
was liable to occur now and again. Dr. Philip Maxwell, who had become a
Republican, had held Jackson's commission as a surgeon of the regular army,
and he revered "Old Hickory" as a Mars in war and a Moses in politics
Once urged to take Mime part in a Republican mass meeting For the county,

he demurred, saying he was tired of hearing Judge S] ner, "thai blue

bellied old Federalist, while he should stand up for two hours to abuse Gen
•eral Jackson." The Doctor was over touchy, for the Judge did hut a<
the old General of having invented the "spoils system." Such little differ-
ences, arising from previous political condition, soon di~.ippe.ncd. leaving
no trace.

Thoroughness of organization began with tin- party's birth, for it was
the work ot master hands. Leaders suppressed their rival ambitions and per-
sonal jealousies, and subalterns, such as local speakers and editors, were
trained to concerted action. The party platform was simple and intelligible,
and not liable to various interpretation. Even the earliesl receipt and publi-
cation of election results were not forgotten, as an instance may show, i in
the night of election day in [856 a few shrewdly-observing men at Elkhorn
sat till nearly daylight to receive returns from the other towns. They had
little or no help from telegraph offices al the few railway stations; hut mes-
sengers rode through mini and darkness, and as each one came his 1,
were found to vary so slightly from pre-estimates that the count) total dif-
fered scarce a hundred votes from the forecast. These political pre-calcula
tors had allowed correct!) for the if conversions in thi

few days of the campaign — for they knew their men, a- theii oppo
knew them not so well.

Instances may show how this was in that year with Democrats of
Walworth, hopeful as they were as to the electoral result at large, and not
inactive or noiseless at home. Lieutenant-Governor McArthur, in a speech
at Elkhom (having been told that at the \pril elections this was found the
only stronghold left to the county Democracy), likened the town to a "pearl
on a black wooly string" The vol tl in November was. 11;

Fremont, 86 for Buchanan, 2 for Fillmore. In the -am.- campaign Ja
Iladlev. of Milwaukee, pre-calculating hi

over John F. Potter, and fearing only Walworth, ere that Mr.

Potter could not have over [.600 majority in I nt) Mr Hadle)

TOO WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

insisted on allowing 2,000, and on such basis counted upon election. This
estimate was here declared wildly extravagant. Election returns reached Mil-
waukee but slowly, hut the results in the other counties of the district seemed
to warrant celebration with cannonade, procession, martial music, banquet,
and joy unconfined. The firing was stopped and the rest of the order of
pleasure suspended indefinitely as soon as a dispatch from Walworth told
of -.370 majority there for Potter and hence of his election.

In that year the ratio of the Republican to the Democratic vote in the
county was 73 to 27. For many years afterward it remained steadily at
68 to 32. In 1908 it was 67.93 to 32-°7- Including all the parties in the
computation, the per centage of the total vote of that year was severally:
Republican, 62.2; Democratic, 29.4; Prohibitionist, 7.3; Social Democratic,
i.i ; with two votes for the Social Labor ticket. Though the course of gen-
eral elections has been so nearly uniform, there has always been a discoverable
tendency toward independent voting in assembly districts, cities and towns.
Five times since 1855 regular Republican nominees for assemblymen have
been defeated at the polls. In 1861 Hollis Latham, Democrat, was elected
as a Union candidate over Richard P>. Flack. In 1863 John Jeffers. independ-
ent-Republican, prevailed over AJanson H. Barnes. In 1869 and 1870 Judge
White. Democrat, similarly overcame regular Republican nominees. In 1877,
for the place of district attorney, Alfred S. Spooner was chosen over Joseph
11. Page, of Whitewater — the only instance in which, the whole county vot-
ing, a Republican nominee has been defeated. Between 1855 and 1911 most
Or all of the towns and cities have at some time or times elected Democratic
members of the county board and other local officers — wherein Walworth
differs little from such other American counties as an- generally Republican.

The several fluctuations, permanent or transitory, in party majorities at
presidential and "off-year" elections have not been wholly unfelt here, though
the county vote has nol always been noticeably affected bj them. The Greeley

movement touched local leaders more than their party's rank and file. The

Hayes-Tilden campaign seemed to move the parties into olden unity, as is
not unlikely to occur whenever both parties have nominated wisely, Vboul
four hundred Republicans changed their votes in the third Cleveland contest.
At the congressional elections of [882, [886 and [890, Republican majorities
were much reduced, but Stood well above zero.

Of Foreign-born citizens, Scandinavians, who are most largely from
Norway, have been almost unanimously Republicans. The Germans and most
others have been divided about proportionately between the greater parties,
the Republicans taking the larger number. The generally current notion

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. lol

that the trish-born arc nearly all Democrats leaves oul the very imporl
element of aon Catholic Irish, most of whom have Keen and are Republicans.
Since the Civil war there has Keen a perceptible re-distribution, politically,
Catholic citizens, who are not hereditary bondmen of any part) ; though a ma
jority of those of Walworth are still Democratic. Thi red population

is a negligible quantity— less than one hundred in the county. The attitude
of Walworth toward their race was shown by the vote in [849 on extension
of suffrage: Yes. 970: no, 189. Further, there had been no need, for its bel
ter enforcement here, to add in 1851 new sections and heavier penalties to
the older fugitive slave law: for neither the old law nor the new one was
likely to be effective here. The "underground railway" had man) stations
and station agents within the county borders, and the geographers of W
worth knew the routes to Canada much better than the ways backward to
hondage.

It was needful that most of this chapter should he used to sel forth
the rise, progress and later status of the party which is responsible for shap
ing the county's policies and administering its affairs. How U has done other
things and what have been the substantial results ma) he seen ,,r inferred
from the story of the county, even as imperfectly told in the foregoing and
following pages. As to that party's present status, little need he said h(
since history's concern is with things done and recorded, and not with things
moved, seconded and debated. In 1895, after four years of exclusion, the
Republican party resumed the administration of state government. Since
that time new definitions of the party creed have been proposed and opposed,
and in part, at least, imposed by the new school of Republicanism. Men of
Walworth made haste hut slowl) to change, even slightly, tin- ideas and usaj
which had prevailed for a half century: hut by 1004 were drawn wholly into
the state-wide strife. In that year's election while Mr. Roosevelt's plur-
ality was 3,522, his vote 73.4 per cent, of the count) total, Governor l
Toilette's plurality over Peck was hut 248, or 4 per cent. \t the same election
his primary-election hill, which became the law of the state, was generally
negatived by his Republican opponents, hut it had a majority of the smaller

cast. The ayes were j.i^^: n . -•: a rati 5 i" pi 5 \t

the first application of this law to a choice for United State- senator in 1910,
Senator LaFollette recei 1 of 3,833 Republican percent

of 76.3. The ratio of voters to whole population since i860 has l,
preciably higher for this county than for the state It is no
443 inhabitants, lour principal cau iroportion oi

a,-c the rable number of elderly families without minor children, the

102 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

small alien population, the generally easily accessible polling places and the
active interest of men (and women) of all parties in nominations and
elections.

\s a party, the Whigs left too little trace in the public records by which
to distinguish their actions from those of other men of their time, and it is
not now easy to name any considerable number of them with certainty. As-
suredly, they were not insignificant in number, and among them was their
full proportion of men of character and ability. A majority of these men
were sons and grandsons of Whigs of the Revolution, and it was their
harmless boast that as a whole they were better representatives than their
opponents of the higher intelligence and morality and the truer patriotism
of the American people. As citizens of a community then in its formative
stage they must have had their due influence upon the affairs of villages
and towns, school districts, and religious societies. There seems to have been
among them a few unavowed Abolitionists. More of them joined the Free-
Soil Democrats of 1848 and 1852. Nearly all of them passed as if naturally
into the Republican movement of 1854.

Democrats of the county were and are generally of like origin with their
invincible opponents, who have found them as to personal value, if not as
to number, not unworthy political foemen. Though so long kept from high
places, they have not been without the weight and influence of their personal
qualities on public business, and they have often found humbler official use-
fulness in their towns. The chief difference between them and their out-«
numbering competitors for places of honor, trust and profit may be found
by simple subtraction. The several official lists include much of the active
and publicly useful clement of the Republican party. Tt is not aside from the
general purpose of this work to name a few men of this greater of the sev-
eral minorities — men of differing personal qualities, more or less honored in
their party and not unvalued by their fellow citizens of all parties. ( )f these
were Maurice L. Avers. John Brown, Henry B. Clark, David and Elisha
Coon, George Cotton, Harvey M. Curtiss, Ebenezer Dayton, Francis Dillon,
\ndn-u Ferguson, < ieorge < rale, I >r. I [armon ( nay. Perry G. Harrington, Drs.
John M. and Samuel W. Henderson, Augustus C. and Jesse R. Kinne, Mollis
Latham, Ebenezer Latimer, Darius McKibbin, John II. Martin. John Mather,
Win. I'itt Meacham, James I). Merrill, Cyril L. Oatman, Dr. Alexander S.
Palmer, George Passage, Soldan Powers, Otis Preston. LeGrand Rockwell.
1 harles Wales, Dr, Henry Warue. \rchihald W'oodard. Dr. George II.
Yoin

WAI.WOK I II C01 N TV, U I I lnj

Tlie Prohibitionists arc sufficient in number t" hold a column of the
official ballot for their nominees. Their influence on the public weal is ii"t to be
measured with exactness by their showing at the polls. There is, no doubt,
a strength not always of measurable political value in consistent and unselfish
devotion to high, though to manj men seemingly impracticable, aims.

The hardly visible Social Democratic body is chiefly of two or three
cities, its entire vote less than one hundred.

CHAPTER XII.

MILITARY HISTORY OF WALWORTH COUNTY.

The militia system of New York (not to name other states similarly
organized for defense and offense) afforded such liberal distribution of mar-
tial titles that it might now he wondered how any lawyer, working politician,
inn-keeper, or other reputable and prosperous citizen could have escaped one
of these marks of favor from the commander-in-chief, without peril of falling
into or upon one of the nearly as plentiful judgeships. The grades of gen-
eral, colonel and major were doubly preferred, for there was this uncertainty
about the title of captain that it was no more the right of a real centurion
than the possession of a master or ex-master of a canal boat or of a lake vessel
of any or no tonnage. Captains, majors, colonels and generals came as early
as others to Walworth. Dodge's and Duty's commissions were conclusive as
to the genuineness of the fortunate holder's rank.

That there was a Sixth Regiment of Wisconsin Militia, and that as
early, at least, as 1S41, is evident from the terms of Col. Edward Elderkin's
commission. Other officers now known were Lieutenant-Colonel Urban D.
Meacham, Major James Alex. Maxwell, Adj't Abel W. 'Wright. Capts. Lucius
Allen. James Harkness, Perry G. Harrington, Joseph L. Pratt.

The earliest statement in detail as to the organization of territorial militia
found at the adjutant-general's office shows that in June. 1 S46. men of Col-
umhia. Dane. Dodge. Jefferson, Portage, Rock, Sauk and Walworth, a regi-
ment fnnn each, were brigaded together, and in July the officers of the Wal-
worth regiment were Col. Caleb Croswell of Delavan (a few years later of

Baral I. Lieut. Col. Urban D. Meacham (a few weeks later succeeded by

William M. (lark I. and Major Thomas Morris Mel high. Tn August. 1846,
the men of Columbia, Dodge, Jefferson and Walworth constituted the first
Brigade of the Third Division, commanded respectively by Brig.-Gen. John
1 Gilman and Maj.-Gen. John \\ . Boyd.

lani'.uw 9, [847, Walworth was divided into eighl districts, to each as-
signed a o impany.

First District— Whitewater and Richmond: Capt. Jesse Pease; Lieuts.
Sil - Walker. William Potts.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 1>>;

Second District — Elkhorn, Lagrange, Sugar Creek: Capt. Perrj G.
Harrington; Lieuts. John G. Wood, William O. Garfield.

Third District- Troy, Lafayette: ( apt. Charles K. Dean; Lieuts. Will-
iam A. Smith. Charles W. Hillings.

Fourth District — Mast Troy. Spring Prairie: No return of offia

Fifth District — Darien, Sharon: Capt. Rial \\ . Weed, Lieut. David
J. Best.

Sixth District — Delavan, Walworth: Capt. Hiram Boyce; Lieuts. Daniel
Dobbs, Beardsley Lake.

Seventh District — Geneva: No returns.

Eighth District — Bloomfield, Hudson, Linn: Capt. tsaac G Miner;
Lieut-. Albert T. Wheeler. John Ames.

February 6, 1847. of Major-General Boyd's staff were Eleazar Wakeley,
division inspector; Experience Estabrook, judge advocate; while Colonel
Croswell's adjutant was Jacob M. Fish, and surgeon, Dr. Harmon Gra

It is probable enough that a few young men of the count) enlisted t'>r
service in the war with Mexico in the regular army, and thai a few m
were enrolled in one or more of the six regiments of Illinois volunteers for
like service. But no official record, except the inaccessible rolls oi the ad-
jutant-general's office at Washington, tells who these men were and how they
contributed to the patriotic work of "conquering a peace" with that faction-
torn country. A few men who returned from that war as soldiers of other
state- came to live in Walworth.

Throughout the fourteen years of peace which followed the Mexii
treaty of [847, Wisconsin was prudently prepared against insurrection and
invasion. Men of military age in each of the older counties constituted a
regiment and thc\ of the newer counties reported as battalions 01
were commissioned and appear in reports as generall) present for dut) but
the rank and file were not so generally visible. For an instance, Kdjul
General Utley's report for [853 -hows that the sixth of twent) nin<
ments was that of Walworth, and was then 3,180 strong on paper. The
Sixth Regimenl was then of the Second Brigade (under Brig Gen Philo
White of Racine), ■■< the First Di\ hat of M. 1 Rufus King of

Milwaukee I, and it en companies, from a- many town--, wen- Iett< 1

from \ to Q. It- field and staff officers were Col. Erasmus D. Richard
of Geneva ; Lieut.-< -1 \dam E. Kay. of Troy; Major Edwin Brainard,
Delavan: Xdi't Samuel II. Stafford, of Bl<
Thayer, of East Tro on Alexander S. P

panieS] in ordet mpany letter, with name- of captains and enrolled

strength of each, weri reported ;

io6

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Henry B. Clark
John A. Perry
Volney A. McCraken
Richard O'Connor
James Cotter
Perry G. Harrington

William H. Conger

H Spring Prairie Ezekiel B. Smith
I Hudson Lathrop Bullen

1 Geneva Tohn M. Nelson

East Troy

Troy

Lagrange

Whitewater

Richmond

Sugar Creek

Lafayette

K Delavan

L Darien

M Sharon

N Walworth

O Linn

P Bloomfield

( ) Elkhorn

William Pierce
Archibald Woodard
E. C. Allen
John M. Cramer
Albert T. Wheeler
Charles W. Sibley
Hollis Latham

Lieutenants
John L. Wilson, Wm. Vanzant 178
Ralph Goodrich, Israel Dean 188

207
Charles King, Leander Birge 293
Geo. James, Jacob M. Fish 138

Wyman Spooner, Jr., Theodore

B. Edwards 146

Sherman M. Rockwood, Harvey

M. Curtiss 126

Stephen Bull, Wm. R. Bern- 240
Abner Farnum, Edw'd Quigley 169
Thomas J. Smith, Sam'l C.

Spafard 256

H. A. Johnson, A. Briggs 300

Orange Carter, Henry Clark 171
Julius A. Treat, Robert Young 200
Elijah Easton, J. Weston 195

Robert Foot, Otis H. Hall 135

Henry S. Fox, Charles Allen 139
Alva J. Frost, Squire Stanford 99

Strength of regiment

3,180

In i860 James B. Schrom, of Whitewater, was of the Governor's gen-
eral staff as quartermaster. Daniel Graham, of Whitewater, and John F.
Potter were colonels and aids to Governor Randall. Walworth was now of
the Fifth Regiment and Kenosha of the Sixth, the two forming the First
Brigade (under Brig.-Gen. J. C. McKesson, of Wheatland) of the Second
Division, commanded by Maj.-Gen. Daniel C. Tripp, of Whitewater. (The
other brigade was of Jefferson and eastern Rock counties.) General Tripp
chose his staff from Whitewater, with two exceptions. All these officers
ranked as colonels: Frank L. Riser and Robert Williams, aids: Edward
Barber, paymaster; Henry Warne, surgeon; Newton S. Murphey, judge-advo-
cate; William II. McCallum, chief of engineers; L. R. Humphrey, chaplain;
John T. Wentworth (Geneva), commissary, ami a Palmyrene as quarter-
master. The field officers of the Fifth were Col. Caleb S. Blanchard, of East
Troy; Lieut. Col. Charles E. Bird, "i" Linn; Mai. Phipps W. Lake, ni Wal-
worth. Two volunteer companies were attached to tin- regimenl : "Company

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 107

A" (so named), of Whitewater, Capt. Lucius A. \\ inchester, and the Geneva
Independents. Capt. Daniel C. Roundy. Excepl thai these two companies

had each forty men, no further return was made of the Fifth Regiment. \
very few of all these names of militia officers ma) be found in the roster of
soldiers of the Civil war, most of them having passed the age limit. Captain
Wheeler, a young lawyer, was perhaps the onl) one named in these rosters
commonly addressed by his martial title.

Having given to Mr. Lincoln in i860 a majority of 2,319 in .1 total vote
of 5.517, the citizens of Walworth noted with interest the quickl) following
events, until the affair of Fort Sumter made it certain that the I nion could
be preserved only by war. The morning newspapers of April 15. [86l,
brought to them the President'- call to arms, and that day's drum beating
throughout the county summoned men to the evening's war meetings. Seats
and standing places at these assemblages were over filled and speaker- usually
accounted dull found willing and applauding listener-. \t such a time it was
easy to tip even cool, slow tongues with lire. It was but to let loose the spirit
of patriotism and of defiance to foreign and domestic enemies, and to forgel
such word as compromise. .Mr. Winsor, of and at Elkhorn, who had voted
for Douglas, speaking that evening, did not forget legal precision of term- in
the unusually warm flow of his indictment of the nation's enemies. He had
neither softer nor harsher word for them than "rebels," and thus the) remain
in history. Other speakers racked memory and invention for words and
phrases likest to thunderbolts and hence fittest for expression of patriotic
wrath. These village lawyers, retailer- and farmer- -poke thai which tl
hearers felt, and to one clearly-seen point, the preservation of the I Won by
national authority.

The call upon Wisconsin was for one regiment of infantry for a
of three months. Governor Randall was at once ofl mpanies enough

to fill three or four regiments. There was nol a compan) of uniformed and
drilled men in the county, but a few headlong youths found each his wa)
to Camp Scott, at Milwaukee, to enlisl in such compan had nol reached
its maximum number of one hundred and ten men. The Second and Third
regiments were organized b) state authority, in order that thi
Washington might be answered with partly-instn ;

more boys of Walworth were enabled to push their w;
In lune places were made for two companies nizing the Fourth. Com-

pany \ was of Whitewater and Compan) I of Gi
tributing to each. Several of the men of thi cre< itei

show,, by descriptive rolls at Madison, with < of

108 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

April; for the record of Wisconsin men's service begins with their accept-
ance as recruits and not with the often long-delayed mustering into federal
service. The interval between enlistment and muster was not subtracted from
the term of actual service, but the record of earlier enlistment is honorable,
and the state made such provision as it was able to do, for subsistence, clothing
and payment of its unmustered soldiers. After the action at Bull Run — in
which a few men of Walworth advanced, stood, fired and left the field only
at the order of William T. Sherman, their brigade commander, and at no
faster pace than his — men of Delavan and Elkhorn joined to form Company
A of the Tenth. About the same time Company K, of the Eighth, at Racine,
was filling its thin ranks with stout men of Bloomfield and Hudson. Sharon,
Whitewater, Lagrange and Sugar Creek respectively officered and manned
Companies C, H, I and K of the Thirteenth. A few men of several towns
enlisted among stranger comrades in the First and Second Cavalry Regi-
ments. Several of the boys of Hudson and Spring Prairie turned out for
service in the Ninth Battery of Light Artillery. Of the Third Cavalry, Com-
pany L was raised from the county at large. The towns not thus far named
sent their men singly and in squads to regiments and batteries most easily
reached at the instant of enlistment. Except the few men in the First In-
fantry, all these men of ]80i enlisted for three years.

Defeat and retreat in the campaigns on the Virginian peninsula and the
Rappahannock brought a new call for troops. The first regiment of Wis-
consin, under that call, was the Twenty-second. Company C was taken from
the Geneva quarter of the county, including also Elkhorn, and Company D
from Whitewater. The Twenty-eighth was but a few days behind, its Com-
pany 1) almost wholly of Whitewater. Company E of Sugar Creek and other
towns, Company 1 of Lafayette, Spring Prairie and the Troys, Company K
less of this county and few of any one town. Delavan supplied a colonel
for the Fortieth, a regiment of one-hundred-day men; Delavan. Elkhorn and
Walworth gave two captains and three lieutenants to Companies F and I.
The men of F were mostly of Delavan, Elkhorn, Sharon and Walworth.
Company K. Forty-ninth, was composed of men of Racine and Walworth
counties. To this company Delavan gave a captain who became major, and
Geneva gave a lieutenant. The First (and only) Regiment of Heav\ \rtillery
had a considerable number of our men. unevenly distributed among its twelve
companies. The whole enrollment, from first to last, was about -'.750 —
slighth more than the sum of the several quotas assigned. Had it been pos-
sible to levy all the troops of the ( i\il war within one year the men of Wal-
\% . , it 1 1 would have formed three average regiments, \s it was. the circum-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. I OQ

stances of the war made the company the largest military unit in filling the
county's quotas.

There is another, and in some respects hetter way of setting forth the
martial patriotism of Walworth. Wisconsin sent out fifty-om regiments of
infantry, four regiments of cavalry, one regiment of heavy artillery and
thirteen batteries of light artillery. Men of Walworth were to be found
in all these except the Twenty-tirst and Forty-first infantry regiments, and
the Second, Eighth. Eleventh, and Twelfth light batteries. Besides all this
service in home organizations, regiments and batteries of Illinois and of the
regular army, the gun-boat river service, and the navy received each a few
estrays from the same source. Walworth men served in eighteen states and
territories — in all the states of the Confederacy except Florida, in the border
slave states, except Delaware and Wesl Virginia, and in Colorado, fnd
Territory, Kansas, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Their enlistments began
in April, i86l, and their service continued till May, t866. Distributed
among so many commands, the men of Walworth were parted to the far
north and to the Gulf, to the eastern sea and to the western ridges of the con-
tinent. By her young men Walworth followed to battle nearly every then
and yet famous commander, and leaders now half forgotten. She foil, .wed
her captains until they became colonels, and her colonels until they exchanged
their regiment- for brigades, divisions and corps. She advanced, attacked,
besieged, assaulted; she entrenched, Fortified, resisted, retreated, was i
tured, and knew Libby and Andersonville from the inside; she preserved
lines of communication, garrisoned posts, moved after murderous Sioux.
hanged bushwhackers in border states, marched through sullen, ill-wish
Baltimore, regulated Xew Orleans, warned awaj the French
Co — and, in brief, performed nearly every glorious and inglorious duty
that falls to the lot of soldiers. Her men came home to resume for a shorter
or longer time their places in the ranks of useful citizens. Many of them went
one by one to the no longer trackless and boundless west, and the Grand Army
membership in the county whose quotas they had filled is largely of later
coming comrades from other counties and stati

Non-combatant citizens Lore the various burdens of war with unend
ing patience, and upheld the war policies and rith little nti.-r.Ml

doubt or question as to their wisdom and necessity. First, there was the
burden of the currency of the state banks, nominally secured, in many in-
stances, by dep i e previously depreciated bonds of states wind, pa
ordinance's ol sion and of states which wen me time of doubtful
fidelity to the union of all the states. Then cam.- the call for their young

IIO WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

men to arms, taking away the help needed on farm and in shop; and, too soon,
followed news of privation, sickness and death. Xext, the unstable national
war currency, its value falling steadily until the return of peace. Throughout
all was the variable fortune of armies in the field, when defeat seemed too
frequent and success but slowly and feebly pursued. Against all these things,
and things unspeakable, men's and women's souls were firmly fortified by
their sense of the justice of the national cause, and they held themselves in
readiness for further sacrifices. They subscribed to bounty funds, and then
voted town bounties in order that quotas need not be filled by conscription.
In fact, the district provost-marshal's wheel turned but seldom to make even
among the towns the burden of personal service in the field.

The women who met formally and informally as sanitarv aid so-
cieties, and as individuals, took upon themselves some duty toward the sick
and wounded at field and post hospitals, made no record of their timely and
most welcome services. But it is not unlikely that the state will soon publish
whatever the uncertain memory of survivors of that period of storm and
stress may recall of the good done by patriotic women of Wisconsin, with
some note of the doers. Should this be done, the women of Walworth will
have a place in the tardy memorial. One name, at least, is not forgotten
here, that of Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (Chesebro) Lee, then of Sugar Creek, a
daughter of Ebenezer Chesebro and Anna Griswold, wife of Nelson Lee,
and mother of one of the earlier superintendents of schools, Elon Nelson
Lee. She took her active part in organizing aid at home, and then went
in person to the wounded and sick in field hospitals and in the general hos-
pital at Louisville. What she did can not be told as yet with approach to
fulness and accuracy, but her matronly care and skill, so unselfishly and
noiselesslv given in that soul-trying time, are yet well and gratefully re-
membered.

Tlie father-, and mothers bad thought and talked much of the happier
time when the boys should come home and take again their old* places on
the farm and in the village shop. "Alas! our dreams, they come not true."
The boys had grown to manhood and maturer minds amid the quickening im-
pulses of that history-making period, had seen men and cities, and "glorious
old Walworth" was no longer all the world to them. They came home, but
for many of them, only to go out again. In the spring of 1865 men were
already eager to find, each citizen and returning soldier, his own place in the
activities of business, so long suspended or maimed by panic ami war. now
SO hopefully planned and resolutely pushed: and this before the last dirtv-
blue regimenl had slouched at the easy gait of veterans through the streets

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. Ill

of cities, from one terminal station to another, on its waj to camp of muster-
ing out and final payment. The service-worn followers of Granl and In-
great lieutenants were fast merging themselves in the "ugly rush" of cities
as better-paid mechanics, accountants, students at short-course business
schools, or servants of railway companies — all hopeful of rapid promotion,
and little minded to drop into the old obscurities and low-paid drudgerii
farm and village life, "where nothing happens." \ few enthusiastic patriots,
men and women, urged subscriptions to raise local monuments t>> the hi
dead, but were not always nor often successful. It was not yet time for mon-
ument building — certainly not for a county monument.

In course of time Grand Army posts were instituted, but at first and
quite naturally and therefore rightly their efforts and influence were dit
to the equalization of the unevenly distributed service bounties and to promo-
tion of more adequate pension rates with more liberal bureau ruling-. In a
few more years the steadily dwindling post membership suggested a county
comradeship which might include the few men who were not of the Grand
Army of the Republic. Occasionally reunion- of men of Walworth and Wau-
kesha counties of the Twenty-eighth and somewhat more general meetings
at the Lauderdale lakes and at Whitewater led to the formation of the Wal-
worth County Soldier and Sailors Association in r88o. It- membership i- in-
expensive and its proceedings but little burdened with formalism. It- yearly
meeting, held late in August, on grassy parks and under friendly tree-, brings
together soldiers and citizens in hundreds to " make a day of it"- and a long
evening as well. No greal time is wanted for election of officers am
of other less pressing business; and soon after dinner the bugler rail- hand
and singers,, speakers and hearers to a feast of ex< ellent music and an abund
ant flow of oratory, declamation, and plain -peaking — all received in best of
humor by the large, sympathetic and unexacting audiei

Among earlv organizers and builders of the Association, now not living.
were Col. Edmund B. Gray, an honorary member, a full-minded and ready
talker who never uttered nonsense nor was ever dull: Edwin D. • !oe, whom it
was very pleasant and good for comrades and decent citizens to know;
George W. Wylie, different from tin e >wn way most useful.

Men who had helped I- mal e larger history than that of counties earn.
Lieut-Gen. Henry C. Corbin. while yet at tin- head of the regular army
Henry Harnden. the captor of Jefferson Davis; Gen. Lucius Fairchild, of the
immortal Iron Brigade. National and state comm f the Grand Army

are always invited air! i lorn come. Of 1

speakers have been Rt. Rev. Samuel Fallows, brigadier

112 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN".

general, Forty-ninth Wisconsin Infantry, United States Senator Joseph V.
Qnarles, ex-Governors William D. Hoard and William II. Upham, Hon.
Alexander E. Matheson, of Janesville, and Jay W. Page, of Elkhorn I natives
of the county ). The altar, the pulpit and the bar of the county have not been
called upon in vain to lend interest to this county holiday.

soldiers' memorial roll.

In 1907 the board of supervisors appointed a committee of three of its
members with two soldiers to consider and report a plan for making a roster
of all the county's men in service in the Civil war, to be cast in bronze and
placed on an inner wall of the county-court building. This committee was:
Capt. Theodore A. Fellows, Genoa Junction ; R. Bruce Arnold. Lake Geneva ;
George Renner, Sugar Creek ; Leonard C. Church. Walworth ; John G. Mead-
ows, Lyons; Henry D. Barnes, secretary. In 1908 the committee's plan of
bronze plates and a record book was adopted and eighteen hundred dollars
was appropriated. The committee appointed two compilers of the proposed
roll, with directions to go to Madison and Washington, if needful, and exam-
ine adjutant-general's records. In 1909 a third board of supervisors chose
from samples of bronze work and appropriated one thousand two hundred
dollars more for a worthier design than the one at first considered. Early in
1910 plates containing the names of 2.743 men were secured to the walls of the
room previously set apart for the use of Grand Army posts. Provision is
made for the few names not yet found and verified. The session of 1910 added
three hundred dollars to the sums already appropriated, for the purpose of
completing the type-written descriptive rolls. It is noteworthy as indicating
the sympathy of the board and it- constituents with the wishes bf living sol-
diers that these several measures passed without opposition.

This roster, now more nearly complete and more nearly error-tree, and
more accessible than ever he fore, was compiled forty-three years after the
end of the war, when lew men were living and fewer were within inquirer's
reach who could correcl some of the errors and explain some of the seeming
anomalies of the fifty-eight large volumes of descriptive rolls of Wisconsin
soldiers. These volumes, written by as many hands, were compiled from regi-
mental returns and from the bi-monthly musters of companies. These were
often defective and sometimes wanting. Clerical errors are to he found.
though corrections, when authenticated, are entered (in red ink). The col-
umns for town and county of each soldier's residence and for the town
and county credited with his services are, many of them, par-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

113

tially or wholly blank, and even when the name of the town is shown, thai of
the county is often wanting. The names of Bloomfield, Genoa, Hone) (reek.
Hudson, Lafayette, Linn. Richmond, Sharon, Springfield, Sugar (reek and
Troy, all then and all but one now on the map of Walworth, are repealed one
or more times in other counties of \\ isconsin. St. Croix count) has four ol
these names, and there are four Springfields in the state. Th rolls

of the county for [860 determined some of these uncertainties; and the enroll-
ments of 1862, made by the several sheriffs, of citizens subjeel to military
service — now a part of the State I [istorical Society's collection of manuscripts
— might have helped further had all these returns keen preserved. The in-
valuable records of the adjutant-general's office at Madison are now securely
stored in the east wing of the new statehouse.

The form chosen for the Following soldier list, that by regiments, seems
most convenient for this work. A satisfactory list by towns is impossibl
the county svstem of the last two years of the war often drew men ol
town into service for another town, within or without the county, win
each new call for troops offered highest premium. Names of men who served
in more than one command are repeated for each such re-enlistment. < rfficers
are given their highest rank. It should be noted that officers, on their promo
tion, were sometimes transferred to another company in the same or an
regiment. Names marked with an asterisk 1 :: 1 are of men who died in sen -
ice. Two asterisks mirk names of men killed or mortally wounded in action:

FIRST CAVALRY.

I ...

Amann, Frederick 11

Babcock. Henry II K

Bradley, Ole J K

Burke, Thomas E —

Cansdell. Henry W., Ass'1 Surgeon

( assoboin, William L

Conant, John A B

Coon, Alonzo B B

Deacon, John R

Dewev. Washington II

Doneburg, John . I

♦Downey, John W I

I )i i) le, [1 iseph B

Eddy, Uriel C K

Rowers, I )avid S B

I 1 «ter, * harles R . F

Fox, ( leorge 1 1., chaplain.

Foy , Thomas

( ribbons, Michael II

1 Ireiber, Herman J I'

1 irossman, William I

I [allenbeck, Edwin II B

I [amilton, Jesse B . \

I [anchett, Alanson K

Hicks. Edwin R . B

5, William II . .
Keve I

ii4

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Mahan, Edward —

Martin, John K

Marvin, Ferdinand ■ —

Medbery, John W B

*Moores, Edward P A

Mosher, Joseph E., 2d Lt G

Myers, Henry A H

Odell, Andrew J C

Parkhurst, James T

Pengilly, Alexander D

Pickett, Samuel H M

Piatt, Otis M

Randolph, William H B

Rann, Lallemand H., Batt'n Quar-
termaster:

Robbins, Eber F

*Rollo, Frederick C B

Simmons, James A

Smith, James A

Spencer, Levi M

Stilson, James \

Sullivan, Dennis I

Thayer, Hollister B B

Traver, Eugene F

Truax, John H F

**Truesdell, Philander K

Webber, Herbert F

Welch, Richard H H

*Wendt, Frederick A

Wright, George H B

SECOND CAVALRY.

*Allen, Jacob H K

Anderson, Stewart K

Armstrong, Henry L

Armstrong, Howard K

Barnard, Luther A E

Barnes, Herbert K

Bellows, George H K

Barnett, David A., 1st Lieut. .. K

Berry, Robert K

Bowen, George W K

Bradt. ( ieorge A K

Breed, Shubael II K

*Breed, William K

Bristol, Lucius F K

Brown. James I K

Cameron. Thomas K

Campbell, Alexander J K

"!*Carter, Legrand K

( 'alter, Lewis K

1 lark, Elijah K

I lark, Harry D K

Clark, Oscar F K

Clowes, Charles K

Corbin, Alfred K

Crocker, Benjamin F., Capt K

Cunningham. William P K

Cutler, William K

Davidson, George B., Capt K

Davidson, William K

Dodge. Levant K

Doolittle, Wayne C K

Dyke. William H K

Eckert. Charles K

Ellsworth, George D K

Enps, Emilius K

Fisher, Elias W K

Fleming, David K

Franklin, Joel K

Gaft'ey, Thomas H

Gibson, I reorge W D

Gilbert, Louis \ j<;

I loff, Milton \ K

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

Greenman. James K

Greenman, Lorenzo K

Groshong. John B \

Hall. John G

Hammond. George W K

Hare, Stephen K

Hauck. David I .

Hawver, Dewey F K

Hillman. Arthur C K

Hillman, Edwin E K

Hillman. William W K

*Hines. Thomas K

*Hoel. Jacob J M

Holden, Silas Rockwell E

Hollister. William K

*Ho\ve. Charles M K

Hunt. William . . . .• K

Huntress, Merritt K

Hutchins. Fred W., Ca|)t K

Hutchins. Oliver C K

Hutchinson. Daniel F K

Jones. Walter S K

Joy, Fernando D K

Judge. Charles K

Kavanangh, William K

Kelsey, Charles K

Kelsey, James K

Lacy, John T K

Lake, Philip W K

Lawless, Th >mas K

Lippitt, Hezekiah K

Lloyd, Thomas Jr K

Loucks. George W K

McManigle, Ira L K

McMillen, Dennis T K

*Mllls, Henry K

Mohr, Albert K

Nelson, Andrew K

Nichols, Daniel M K

Odell, John A K

< 'Km m. Andrew K

Onderdi >nk, ( lharles K

( Kvens, John II...-. K

Payne, Andrew J K

Peck, Peter P., isl Lieut K

Pounder. ( in irge II K

* I '"under. JameS F K

Pramer. Walter K

( hiinn. James K K

Read, Jeremiah K

Reynolds, Philip T K

Riley, John P K

Rogei s, I a'mbert J K

Roundy, Porter M.. 2d Lieut . . . . K

Sage, ( hauneev K

Seaman, \lK-n (1 K"

Seaman, David B K

Seaver. Rodney K

Seaver, William. Q. M. Sergt.

Severson, Benjamin K

Shaw. George D K

Shea. William K

Sirrett, Ebenezer I I )

Sizer, Melvin K K

Smith. Francis K

♦Smith, Diner M K

'Smith. I i K

Smith, Washington K

Smith. \\ illiain K

Smothi Olwin K

Starin, < (range C . K

Steel, 1 hi -tan K

1 1., i-t Lieut K

IF K

W K

' K

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Strasser, Conrad K

Sweet, Eugene B K

Taggart, Leonard W K

Thompson, Richard K

Tremper, Edgar K

Trimble, Benjamin F K

Vanderhoof, John M., 2d Lieut. K

Van Valkenburg, Myron K

Waite, Orange R K

Wasmuth, Charles K

Waterhouse, Hugh K

Watson, Merritt K

Weaver, Silas Enslow K

Welch, George S K

Whitney, Samuel H C

Williams, Edson, 1st Lieut . . . . K

Williams, John R K

Wright. Spencer K

THIRD CAVALRY.

*Armstrong, Robert

Austin, Hiram

**Bartram, David D

Battisfore, Augustus J

*Bemis, Elijah M

Bliss, Andrew J

Brandon. John

Brandt, Julius E

Brandy, James

Carver, Aaron

*Case, William H

*Cass, Clarence W

Cass, Martin

Chapman, William

Church, Leonard C

( '< ilburn, Paul

Crane. ( Jeorge J

Crego, James P

(rites. John, 1st Lieut

Curtis, Myron G

Darrow, ' leorge W

i >cw ing, Nelson I h iratio

I )n\\ , I ,orenzo

Drake, Brew ster B

I luffy, James

101 wards, I. Mien J., Com. Serg't.
T'arr. \sa W., Or. Master

E Garfield, Eli William L

L Garfield, Oscar L

L Garfield, William M L

G Gilbert, Curtis E L

G Gilbert, Nelson B L

L Gleason, Herbert J., Hosp. Steward

G Goodsell, Harry, 1st Lieut G

D Hale, Joel G

G Hall, Samuel C L

D Hardy, Michael G

G Hart, Ithamar W L

E **Hooper, Daniel M L

G Hoskings. William D

A Howard, Patrick H

L Ingalls, Ludden B L

D Jackson, Levi L

D Jackson, Stedman L L

D King. Albert D E

D Kizer, Fernando Cortez, Capt. . . D

A Kling, George H D

L *Lavin, Thomas L

L Lavin, William L

C Lawless, Lawrence L

I . I .cn>v, I [enry T G

I. Lippitt, John W L

1 .1 iwe, Amasa D

1. 1 .umsden, h ihn T 1 .

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

ii:

McGivern, Patrick 1

Marsh, David O G

Marsh, Eugene T L

Mohr, Matthias G

Morse, Lyman L

Nolan, James H

O'Hara, Edward G

O'Hara, Michael G

Parker, James M ( '•

Parker. Norman ( !

*Parmelee, Edwin A L

Perkins, Edwin G L

*Perkins, Oscar \Y L

Pern-, Charles A., Capt L

Puffer, Samuel J 11

Regan. Daniel P D

Reynolds, Benoni Orrin, Surgeon.
Rogers. Harold H. Serg't Maj.

Rogers, Herschel P G

Rogers, Mortimer F G

Royce, Henry L D

Russell. Elias B I

Russell, Thomas T I

Scott. Calvin L D

Scoville, James K II

Shahino. Henry D

Sheffield. Daniel J 1 1

Shugart, Albert M

Sncll, Walter II G

Snyder, Joseph G

Siren. William B

Stone. Lafayette D

Stoodley, William E L

Storms. Francis D

Stratton, William J L

Thomas, < leorge N < i

Thomas. Josiah G

Thompson, Dewitl C G

Titus, Otis I )

Traub, Adam I .

Tyler. Rollin G

Van Bogart, Tip ( I larrison) . .

Van I Ionic, Charles I < i

Van Moorsell, Martin I >

Van Valkenburg, Jacob < .

Weir, Ji ihn I .

Weldon, Michael G

West. William L

*Whitmore, Rue! L

Wilbers, Herman M

*Wilcox, Byron 1 1.

*Wilson, David G

Winer. John D

Wiswell, Charles Edward L

Wiswell. Henry C L

Wolfendon, Joseph T I

FOURTH INFANTRY-CAVALRY.

♦Adams, James II \ Beebe, Emery I F

Allen. Orlando 0 \ Bingham, Newcomb

Ambler. Henry C F

Aylward, Richard F

Barry, Melville A F

*Beardsley, Horace Gardner. ... F

Beckhard. Amos H \

Becklev, Homer Meader A

*Blake, Joseph

Blanchard, Lorison G F

Blodgett, Rollin F

Honker, [saac A

Boswell, Marshall E \

Bowers, Nicholas George F

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Branch, Charles L A

Brewer, Wilbur N A

Brice, John P F

Bridge. John W., Hosp. Steward.

Briggs, George Gaskill G

Britton, John F

Brown, George H., 1st Lieut. . F

Brown, Joseph F A

Browning, Lorenzo F

Buck, Jerome H A

*Bull, Charles Henry F

Burdick, Albert F

Burdick, Asbury F

Burdick, Charles H F

Burnham, John A

Burt, Roswell F

Burton, Nathan F

Bush, John H F

Cadman, Charles A

*Carmichael, Richard D F

Carroll, Patrick F

Castle, Lewis A

Castle, Philo A., ist Lieut A

Chaffee, Alfred E., ist Lieut. ... A

Chamberlain, Joseph A A

*Chappell, Turner C F

Church, George W F

Clark, Luther F

Cleary, Martin H

Coffee. Christopher C, ist Lieut. F

Conklin, James G F

Craigue, Nelson F., Colonel.
Creiger, Tehiel, Sergt. Major.

Cronk, Reuben R \

Curtice, I iharles !•'.., Capt F

Dake. Henry M K

Dake, Martin II K

Dake, William If K

Darling, Van Rensselaer F

David, Louis W F

Davidson, Ebenezer F

Davidson, Hugh R F

Dewing, Manville Henry A

Dewing, Norman Houston .... A

Dick, Charles W K

Dikeman, John W F

Dodge, Sidney W F

Dodge, William H F

Drinkwine, Commodore P F

Duffy, Thomas A

Dunbar, Oscar A

Duncombe, Moses A

Durkee, Harris R., ist Lieut. . . . F

Eaton, Oliver K A

Ennis, James A

Farnsworth, William R ...... . A

**Farnum, Ezra C F

Farrar, George Henry F

Felch, Chester E. W A

Felch, John E A

Ferguson, Samuel D A

Finch, Gilbert B.. ist Lieut A

Fish, Stephen L A

Fitzgerald, Michael F

Fowler, John E H

Freeler, Jacob A

Gibbs, James L F

Gill, Thomas J A

Goodenough. Walter \

Goodwin, Gilman ( '• F

Gray, James L D

( iray, Robert Bruce F

Green, Charles A \

*Green, Horace D., Hosp. Steward.

< '.undersoil, John \

Hamilton, Frederick B A

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

119

Handy, Thomas J F

Harrington, John W A

Harris, Chester C E

Hart, Patrick F

Haskell, Jeremiah F

Haswell, William S F

Heller, Jacob A

Henderson, Edward F

*Herrick, William Lafayette . . . F

*Holden, George A

Hopkins, Ephraim F

Hotchkiss, John F

Howard, John C D

Hulburt, D. William, Com. Serg't.

Humphrey, Jerome B A

Jacobs, Abraham C F

Jacobs, Daniel F

Jerome. Albert A F

Johns, Charles A., 1st Lieut F

Johnson, Allen S F

Johnson. Nelson \

Keith, Franklin \

**Kenyon, Clark M A

Keyes, Stewart W F

King, Walter M A

Kittelson, Austin A

Kizer, Frank L \

Klock, Marcus R F

Kribs. Charles \

Lawrence, Henry E

Leach, Jonathan F

♦Lewis, Charles II \

♦Lovejoy, Calvin S \

*Luce, Joseph S F

Ludman, Frederick W \

*Ludman, William T \

Lull, Noyes F

*McBride, Allen B F

Mc( iraWj Edgar S F

McManus, Josiah C F

McNeal, Charles II F

Magill, Henry II F

♦Marshall, ( leorge F I

Matthews, James F

Matthews, William Henry F

**Maxon, 1 Janiel B., ist Lieut . . F

Mead. Isaac X., 1st Lieut F

A I m|'i at t, William 11 \

Mood) . Edward L \

M01 idy, Reuben T \

Mi irfc m, Marcus W \

Mulligan, Samuel (twice) . . . . A F

Murphy, John \

XetT. Henry X F

Xewcomb, Joseph F

Nichols, Daniel W F

Nilsson, Nils \

Xyce, Hiram S \

Oleson, Ole B \

Parker, George E F

**Parks, William F

♦Patterson, Ashbel \

Payne, Aaron F

Peck, George Wilbur, _'d Lieut.. E

Perry, ( iharles \

I 'err) . I [enry \

Phillips, ( ieorge II \

Phillips, Jacob \

Pixley, I tolphus E., ts( Lieul . . . E

Powell, .Charles C I

Pramer, Levi I

I 'reed) . Stephen \

Proctor, I >a\ id \ \

Puffer. ( Ihenery F

'utnam, I [enry I

Ralston, William H I

120

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

*Ranney, Moses A

Reese. Sylvester \

Ripley, Jacob F

Robinson, Franklin A

Ross, Washington F

Roundy, Daniel C, Capt F

Rouse, Timothy F

Rowe, John A

So >tt. James A

Seeley, Milo F

Shaver. James H F

*Sherman, Alfred F

Sherman, Charles F

Sherman, Horace F

Simmons, Charles F B

Simmons, David E A

Smith, Clark H F

*Smith, John F

*Smith, Levi F

Smith, Sidney \

Snow, Harvey L F

*Squires, John H F

Stearns, human G F

Steele, Charles W A

Stevens, Edward J E

Storms, William If F

Sw in, Ira A

Sw in, [eri une \

**Tabor, William M V

Trumbull, Fitzjames F

**Tuohey, Patrick F

Tupper, Alvaro W F

Tupper, Jerome B F

**Tupper, Joseph P F

Turner, George A

Utter, Cyrus D F

Van Norman, Charles R F

*Viles, Gustavus Granville F

*Vodre, Charles A

Waffle, Leander F

'Walker, Geo

Weatherwax, Andrew J..jd Lieut. F

Weatherwax, Monroe J F

Webb, Major P A

Weeks, Martin W F

Weeks, Theodore F

Welsh, Hiram J ■ A

Wenham, William 11 V

Whalen, Patrick F

Whelan, Joseph P A

White, Nelson W F

Wills. .11. Ole \

Wilson, Asad F

Wire. Gideon J A

Wood. John F

FIRST HEAVY ARTILLERY,

\nyaii. William B

Baker, Benjamin R II

Hear, Isaac K

Beckwith, Edward Seymour ... A

I >eeden, Ji ihn E

I'.li^s, | )aniel F

Bowers, Nicholas George B

I Irainerd, Francis E E

Brown, James E

Brow lie James Edwin C

Mullen, Robert G

Butler, Sidnej \ B

Carle. Jonas H B

( ihristmas, John B

( ^olberg, ( harles K

Cole, fudson E B

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

121

Coulthard. James A \

Cox, William E

Crites, Alexander L

Crites, George L

Cross. George L

Demroe, John L

Drake, Charles P E

Dntcher. Samuel —

Eggert, Charles II

Eldredge. Charles T A I

Falmer, Wallace W L

Farr, George L

Finch. George E

Finch, Solomon J E

Fisher, Augustus C E

Fisher, John E

Fowler, Benjamin F L

Fuller, James E AT

Garrett, Andrew J, ist Lieut. ... A

Caskill. Joseph B

Gilbert, Don A \

Goff, Sidney Calkins E

Haywood, Charles \

Henderson. John Hicks B

Herron, John \Y K

Hess, Nicholas E

Hickox, Hervey West B

Hill. Amasa P E

Hill. Elhridge F

Hill. William H. Com. Sergt.

Hopkins. Daniel C 1-

Howard. Wilder M E

Hubbard, John W B

Huntress. James K. P B

Huntress. Samuel Doctor I'.

Johnson, John E

Karbetski, August L

Keeley, James L

Kelley, fohn E

Kenyon, William L

Know Iton, I >a\ id E E

ECrokofsky, Frederick L

Langham, Edward \

Lew i^, James C

Lewis, Mark A C

Lingenfelter, Daniel F

Mead. Isaac \\ G

Medbery, ( ieorge W E

Motherway, John E

Moult' m, Stillman F

Olds, John J I

Oleson. Lars L

O'Neil, William L

Parker, Ji iseph F K

Perry, John Adams C

Pier, Michael E

Ouinn, Thomas I .

Ray, Patrick Henry, Captain. ... I

Sales, William M B

Sanhi tii, 1 loratio 1! E

Sands. Peter F

Scott. Marion I : . A

Sewell, < ieorge E C

*Shearman, I Eenry S B

Sin >rt. Ji ihn \

Smith. Edwin R \

Smith. William R I

Starkey, Thomas K

Stevens, Evarts C B

Steven-. Martin E., tsl Lieul .... G

Stewart, < 'harles I

Stone, ( ieorge W \

Swift, John II

I >ft, Alfred \

Utter, I >■■ ight B

Van [saac L

ph I

Wagenknecht, Charles D

122

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Warner, Samuel P B

Welch, Sidney H

Wells, William S E

Wheelock, Norman E

Whitney, Throop B B

Willis, Anson C A

Wilson, Samuel J L

Winsor, Curtis H B

Wood, Edgar A C

Wroe, Thomas J., Com. Sergt.

Williams, John E Yost, William

LIGHT ARTILLERY FIRST AND THIRD BATTERIES.

Cansdell, Henry, Surgeon.

FOURTH BATTERY.

Ellison, Wesley.
Groesbeck, Gilbert.

Loucks, Andrew M.
Maxwell. James.

Snow, Orrin D.

FIFTH BATTERY.

SIXTH BATTERY.

Fernald, Clarence D.

Miller, Clarkson, Surgeon.

SEVENTH BATTERY.

Berges, Henry P.
Brown, Joseph F.
Criger, William.
Evans, Jesse G.

Graham, James.
Hutton, Jonathan B.
Wilbur, John F.

NINTH BATTERY.

Ashley, Henry.
Bemis, Lyman A.
Borst, John.
Brown, Theodore.
Brownlee, John.
Cole, Leander.
Cox, Daniel.

Crawford, John H.
Derby, Eugene W.
I )euel, Joseph B.
Fielder, Henry.
Fisk, Clinton O.
Flagerman, 1 [enry.
Fowler, ( ieorge \V.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

'-\$

Fowler, John
*Funk, Charles.
Funk, Edward.
Granger, Josiah.
Haight, Benjamin J.
Haines, Samuel J.
Haller, Samuel.
Haller. Theodore.
Hand, John Wesley.
Harp, Joseph.
Healey, Christopher.
Holton, Richard.
Ingham, Silas A.
Kyburz, William.
Langdon, Isaac M.
Lawrence, Charles.

Lull, Noyes.
Magill, John C.
Maycock, 1 tarry.
Meadow s, John G.
Merriam, James E.
Owels, Herman F.
Owels, William.
Robertson, Oscar B.
Stulken, Gerhard E.
Tayli >r, James P.
Travis, Francis W.
Tripp, George W.
Watts, Edmund T.
Watts, Gebhard.
Watts, James.
Wilcox, Thomas H.

Banfield, Michael R.

TENTH BATTERY.

Cash, William.

THIRTEENTH BATTERY.

Beckley, Homer Aleader.

Bond, Samuel.

Boyle, Felix.

Branch, Willard S.

Campbell, Robert A.

Chaffee, Alfred E., First Lieutenant.

Clark, Edward F.

Corkett, John K.

Cross, George L., First Lieutenant.

Dancey, George E.

Dewing. Norman Houston.

Fisk, Lucien J I.

Flanders, Arthur W.

Fryer, James.

*Green, Addison.

Green, Charles A. .

Hall, William.

I farrison, Alpheus T.
Holcomb, John J.
Hunt, Charles P.
Jotie^. ^mericus \ .
Ji Hies, I [enry L.
Magill, James A.
: Plain, John V.
Redf Til. Spencer T.
Robinson, I >avid S.
Rockwell, Morris E.
Saunders, Michael.

S< hultz, August W.
Sewright, I . iLre.
Simpson, Thorn;
in-. I [enry C.

124

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Stoner, Hiram.
Thatcher, George D.
Walsh, William.
West, William.

Westphall, William.
*Wickett, Thomas.
Wing, George Nelson.

FIRST INFANTRY.

Becker, William H B

Beckwith, George Henry C

Carter, Arthur W B

Carville. James C

Devendorf, Daniel B., Asst. Surgeon

Dye, James Wr Band

Fabian, August C

**Fabian, Charles C

*Fischer, Emil Caspar C

Hinzpeter, August C

Kingman, Newton H K

Kirsner, John C

Lawrence, Henry C

Lawrence, William R C

Lawton, William B

Leary, Daniel C

Lippitt, John W E

Lumb, William E

Marbecker, James M B

Mead, John B

.Montague. Henry O B

Moore. Edson B

Morgan, Leman C F

Mosher, William Henry B

*Mulligan, James B

Neiheisel, Peter C

Neldner, Frederick C

Norcross. Pliny K

Owens, John H B

*Peake, William C

*Relyea, Leo/is B

Savage, Horace D B

Schlieger, Conrad C

Scrafford. James B F

Sentenn, Lewis W C

Skillen. John C B

Slocum. James Band

Wandall. Henry B

Weyrough, Jacob C

*Whilden, Jesse - B

SECOND INFANTRY.

**Baldwin, Theodore F K

Barright, Augustus D F

Beckwith. Edward Seymour . . . . K

I >' >yle. James K

*Flanders, Martin V K

Garrett, Andrew J K

Gilbert, Don A K

I layne, Nicholas K

Knapp, Franklin P K

Mcintosh, James K

Mclntyre, John D

McLachlen. John D

Nagel, Nicholas K

Ray, Patrick Henry K

Rodman, Martin F

Salisbury. Charles J K

Si-' ►field, I leorge F F

Stratum, Alcinous C

WALWORTH COUNTY, Wisconsin. [25

Stratton. Gilmore M C Whitney, T. B K

Teachout, Nelson E K Wilkins, 1 [enry B K

Welton, Marvin F Winne, Oscar F G

THIRD INFANTRY.

Baker, Charles E Johnson, Lorenzo D I

Bartlett, Oscar F., Surgeon. Mcl-'arlane, Edward P B

*Baxter, William K .Meyer, Francis Xavier D

Beans, Albertus I Newell, Alonzo K

Browne. William Adamthwaite. . G Otterson, Osmund \

Cornell, Louis A Otterson. Warren P \

Feeny, James — Priem, Richard \

Hart, Charles A A *Sales, William 1 1

Hart. John R A Sawall. Louis K

Hart. Perry A Williams. Jabez K

*Haswell, Joseph A

FIFTH INFANTRY.

Baker, Nathaniel E Money, I 'eter -

Eggleston, John F ** Riley. Abram K \

Hanson, John F Storey, John W G

Ingalls. Alfred K Sturgis, William B Vdjt

Tones. William G —

SIXTH INFANTRY.

Allen, William G D Kilmartin. John G

Bartlett, Oscar F Wt. Surgeon Rogers, John W D

Brennan, John I > Van Wie. I )avid C K

Coonrod, Martin C Wilson, < leorge W

SEVENTH INFANTRY.

Barrett, Patrick K Carney, Edward K

I '.card. Josiah II K Carney, George K

Browne, James Edwin B Claflin, John S K

Bruce, fohn W.. 2d Lieut K Costley, William II

i2b

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

♦Cromwell, Orrin B B

Durham, John B

♦Eddy, Nathan H K

Eggleston, Leroy A K

Ellis, William D K

Fenton, John H K

♦Herrington, Albert M K

Hoyt, George S Major

Hoyt, John M Captain K

Hughes, William K

Huntress, Gideon K

Huntress, Hiram B K

Hyde. Willis K

Klein, Carl K

Livingston, Reuben L K

Lyon. Frederick S K

McCabe, James K

**McKinney, William D K

McNamara, Michael K

Miller, Peter G. C K

Morse, Samuel B., 2d Lieut K

** Norton, Charles B K

**Norton, Nathan K

Sentenn, Menander O I

Smith, Charles W I

Snyder, James H K

Stever, Washington, 1st Lieut.. K

♦♦Stillson, Thomas H A

Teachout, Alfred K

**Walrath, William W.. 2d Lieut. T

*Watson, George F K

**Whitcomb, Francis T

White, Nelson I

Wilkins, Louis S K

*Wilson, William S K

Wood. Stafford L K

Wood. Stillman K

EIGHTH INFANTRY

Alcroft, George K

Baker, Horace K

Billings, Levi J K

Dawson, Thomas K

Dickinson, Charles D K

Farley, Edwin K

Fellows, Theodore A.. Captain. . K

lYrnald, Clarence K

Fernald. Frederick K

Faulkner. John K

Field. Francis M K

Grestjen, Isaac K

I [art, < leorge N K

I [erzog, Edward K

Hickox, Alfred A K

Hicknx, William E K

Hobart, John Chaplain

Holmes, George S K

Hubbard. John K

*Lowe, John H K

Mack, Hulbert C K

*Mairie, Albert Dickson K

♦Manning, Charles B K

Miller. Amos J K

*Mott, Josiah K

Myles, Nellis —

Noyes, Charles Augustus K

Olp. Harry K

♦Paddock, Herbert G K

Palmetier, Charles, 2d Lieut. ... K

Palmetier. Jared K

Powderly, William II K

Randall. Cedric B K

Rollow, Francis F

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

'-7

*Rouse, William N K

Rutenber, Menzo K

Sentenn, Benjamin fi

Smith. Albert E., Capt B

Smith, Charles W K

Smith, William R K

Tin >mas, David K

Thurston. Alfred X C

*Tupper, Silas W K

W eeks, Levi K

Whonn, William K

Wyman, Frank I K

Wyman, < leorge K

NINTH INFANTRY.

Alt". Marcus E

Boiler, Franz '. E

Booth, Andreas —

Good. Anton G

*Grossmeyer, Johann D

Hille. John H

Holl, Leonhardt D

Kieslich, Franz, Hosp. Steward

Naumann, Friederich E

Xaumann. Moritz I".

Scheitel, Joseph C

Scherle, I tenry II

\ orpagel, Julius | |

TENTH INFANTRY.

**Adams, Daniel

*Adams. Mortimer

*Adams, Peter

Alf. Wendelin

Babcock, Ira E

Babcock. Plimpton

**Bell. William J

Blakeman. Absalom

*Bovee, Andrew D

Bovee, Cornelius

Brabazon. William

Bradt. William I

Briggs, \\'il! >nr X

*Bro\vn. Sibley

*Burdick, Chester A., ist Lieut.

Burr. Charles FI

Burtard, John

Carroll, Patrick

Carver. Edward W

A *Coburn, William II A

A Conant, Shumway . . . .' \

A Concklin, Charles W \

A **Concklin. James II \

\ Conrick, J. ( tecar A

A ( lornell, Peleg \

A Dalton, William \

A Day, William W D

A I (euel, Ji iseph I! Hand

A I teuel, Mortimer \

A I )e\ one, William J \

\ I >e\\ ing, < Irlando \

A Dewing, Walter Edwin \

A Dopp. ( leorge C \

C Eati tn, Ji i eph S. J \

A Eckerson, Sherrod \

A Ewing, Albert O \

A Foster. Elon G \

A tin, William M \

128

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Fowler, George W A

*Frost, Francis M \

German, William H \

Goff, James M., Adjutant.

*Griffin, DeWitt \

Hall, Robert \

Halverson, George F A

Hare, Levi A

Harkness, Robert, Major.
Harrington, Flavius J., ist Lieut. A

Harrington, Woodbury A

Hay, Washington T \

Heaton, Abram A

**Hein, Peter \

Hitclicock. Amos Hunn A

Holland, George H A

Hooper, Jamin H A

**Hunt, George W A

* Johns, Freeman A

*Johnson, Henry O., major.

Jokich, Frank A

Kline. I )avid A

Lee, Elon N A

*Lee, Luther V

**Long, John H \

Lord, Andrew H V

Luce. Robert M \

*Mc( 'aim, John \

!*Manning, Frank E \

Matteson, 1 )avid \

Vlatteson, William \

Moffatt, Willis B \

Montague, Harrison M A

Morrison, Thomas H A

Mulville, Martin A

Nicholai, Theodore A

Xorcross, Levi W A

Odell, Fernando \

Parsons, Elisha Y A

Peny, Coryclon M A

Pilling, Richard \

*Rector, Hugh A A

Red ford, William \

Ripley, James B \

Sayles, William B A

Scott, Marion L A

Shaver, Martin V A

Sheldon, Josiah A

Smith. Fred V A

**Snell, Charles \

*Snell, James K V

Spurr, George A

Sterling. Franklin \

Stewart. William J \

Thanet, John M \

*Tyler, Joseph A

Vail, Franklin A

Wadkins, William H. C A

Williams. MSlo K \

*Wilson, James S A

Wood, Robert B \

Wood, Walter \

Woodward, Benjamin 1" D

Woodward, John D

i I I \ i:\rn [NFANTRY.

* Bowman, Ransom \ Cox, Charles A H

Boyce, Hilton W., \.sst Surgeon. *Fryer, Henry C

Bryant, I [orace F < iillingham, William D

Bryant, I [orace I )

D I [odeen, Curtis 7. G

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

129

Huntley, Frank A C

Huntley, Selden C

Lyman, Richard B D

Meracle, Alonzo C

Semple, Charles C

Sergeant, David P I

Sewright, John, 1 >t Lieut C

Smith, lames H II

Tessin, John C

Warren. Addison H

Widner, Martin D

W ill..r. Thilander C

TWELFTH 1\ I \N TRY.

Barnes, William H. Harrison, Band.
Dove, James, Band.

Doyle, Thomas K

**Foster, Benjamin F I

Gagnon, Louis K

Gaylord, Josiah Wilson, Band

Hogle, George J D

Jackson, James A H

Jillson, Orrin C, Prin. Musician.
Latham, Edward M., Band.

Morehouse, U)ram, Hand.
< )gden, Stansherry, Band.

Ottman, George F C

Parker, Levi M C

I 'otter, Monroe, Band.
Potter, Paraclete, Band.
Robbins, Edwin R.. Band.
Shaver, I [enry ].. Band.

Stroud, Alfred C

Taylor, fames I ' \

THIRTEENTH IN 1' \ NTRY.

Allen, Levi E C

Bahcock. Hosea I

Babcock. James I

Bacher, Philip C

Bailey, Harrison C

Barber, John C II

Bardwell, Henry G., ist Lieut.. C

Barney, James P II

Bauer, Jacob C

Beckwith, (ieorge Henry, Capt. 1 1

Bell, William R C

Berrie, John. Principal Musician.

Bidwell, George C

Bigelow, Francis A I

Bogardus, Wesley C

Bollinger, Daniel C

(9)

Bottrell. Richard I

Bo ■ e, Lorenzo D. F C

Boyce, Volney J C

er, < "harles C

Boyington, I hester II

Brandt. Eugene II

Brewer. « !< i >rge I

n, William I ' '

*Bulli « i i ederick II

k, Charles H K

Burdick, Edgai 0 K

Burkhart, < Christopher ... I

: Burton, I farlow C

Burton, William S C

Bush, David H C

Bush, Henrv C

130

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

*Bush, Peter C

Bush, William H C

*Cameron, George H. Captain . . I

Carroll, Henry I

Casper, George M C

Castle, Alonzo L H

Chatfield, David B I

*Clark, Albert S C

Clark, Oscar F C

Clark, Walter S C

*Clark, William M C

Clarke, Oliver P K

*Clemons, Harvey I

Cline, Christian C

Codding, George B E

Cole, Frank C

Colton, Harvey T 1

Conable, Henry H C

Cone, Melville C

Cone, Wilbur C

Conner, John I

Cook, Joseph I

Cook, William J H

Corey, Barnabas M C

*Corey, Charles H C

Corning, Andrew C

Coxshall, William I

*Crandall, John B K

Crevelin. Charles C

Crofts, Hobart B C

Cron, Christian C

*Dane, David I

1 )ane, William I

1 >avis, James W I

Deignan, Charles I

I )cmpsey, Andrew I

I lennis, William C

-Dibble Virgil M I

I >obie. b'lin C 1 1

Dockstader, Jerome G K

Dockstader, Willard K

Doolittle, Orla W C

Dougall, Thomas H C

Draper, Napoleon B K

Duncan, Solomon I

Dunn, David D C

Dunn, Robert S C

Dunn, William B C

Eckerson, Willis D C

Edwards, David I

Elliott. Ozias H

Ellis. Charles H

Emerson, Benjamin H

Emerson, George W H

*Finch, Lorenzo D I

Fish, John T., Captain C

Flansburg, Isaac C

Foote, Franklin I

Forrester, Robert C

Foster, Edwin I

Foster, Leander J I

Fountain, Frederick I

Freer, Charles E

Garbutt, Joseph I

Garrity, John I

Gates. Boukritz I

Gilbert, Louis A 1

Gile, George Franklin C

Gillard. Seth K

Gilson, John W H

Glover, Robert, ist Lieut H

Gould, Leander I

Graham, Charles C, ist Lieut.. H

Green, Dewitt C K

Green, Jerome C

( rreen, Theodore T K

i iroesbeck, Elias II C

Gunderson. Harvey H

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

131

Hale, Layton L C

Hall, William H H

*Halverson, John B

*Hamilton, George I

*Hanson, Halver H

Hare, Ambrose 1

Hare, Caleb E H

Hare, Charles 1

Hare. William I

Hayden, Lucien II C

Hayes, George C

Hegert, John C C

Henry, William J I

Herzog, Henry 11

Hodgson, Calvin W C

Hodgson, George H • C

Hodgson, John S C

Hodgson, William P C

Hollis, John H

Hollis, Myron 11

Hollister, Bradford N C

Hollister, Hiram A C

Hollister. Uriah Schutt, Captain. K

Holt, Henry C

Horton, Elisha G., Asst. Surgeon.

Hotchkiss, David C

Hotchkiss, Jared 1

Hotelling. Joseph I

Hyde, Newton C

Jacobson, Ole II

Janes. Alonzo I

Janes, William I

*Johnson, William \

*Johnson. William W C

*Kammerer, William Adam .... C

Kingman, Isaac W I

Kingman. Newton II., Captain.. I

*Kingman, Thomas R I

*Kirby, William II C

*Kittelsi hi. Jesse II

Knaub, William C

Knilans, James K I

Knilans. William A.. Captain. . . . G

Knox, Henry 11., ist Lieut I

Knudsi 'ii. Erie, Band.

Kroll, Anson C

Kuemmel, Augustus II., Colonel.

Labuwi, Matthias C

Lain, David S C

Lamoreaux, Daniel K.. 1st Lieut. C

Landon, John S C

Lark in. Sylvanus O II

Larson, Andrew, Band.

I ,asher, ( rarrett II

Lasher, Leonard \

Lathrop, Thomas B I

Lauderdale, Julius H.. Captain.. I

Lee, Andrew B II

Levalley, Benjamin F C

Levalley, ( harles H C

♦Levalley, John S C

Levalley, Lafayette C

Little. Ira \

Loomer, Charles E I

Loomer, Wallace E I

Loucks, William, 2d Lieutenant. C

Lowell, Jerome C

Lownsbury, Albert W.. Sergt. M

Met '.inn' m, I [ugh C

*Mc( 'art. Andrew C

Mel larthy, Mountford I II

McDonald, I >avid 1

Met !ee, John II

\l<-< rtnnis, I '.'ii ick I

♦Manning, Gilbert H

Markle, Charles I

Markle, Jesse B C

Markle, William T I

132

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Marlette, Giles F

Mason, Addis E I

Maxon, Elisha K

Maynard, Hiram W I

Meicel, Frederick E

♦Mereness, Jacob B C

Mereness, Luther J C

Merrill, Harvey C

Merrill, Martin L C

Merrill, William C

Millen, William H

♦Miller, John I

*Miller, John R I

Miller, Peter I

Miner, Rosell C

Morgan, James C

Morris, Azel Bird I

Moulton, Henry N C

Murdock, Alexander I

Myers, Oliver T C

Nelson, Oliver H

Nelson, Simon H

♦Niblick. John I

Niles, Jabez S C

Norcross, Alanson K

♦Norcross, Frederick F K

Norcross, Pliny, Captain K

Norton, William I

Noyes, Charles S., Major.

O'Brien, Michael .' T

O'Brien, Patrick C

Olds, William I

Olson, Martin H

Olson, Ole ist H

Olson, Ole 2d H

♦Osmundson, Ole H

Ostrom, Oscar H C

Owen, William E C

Parish, Benjamin I

Parks, Henry H C

Parks, William D. L. F C

Parsons, William H

♦Patterson, Josiah H

Patton, James A C

Perkins, Daniel E H

Peterson, Kittel H

Phelps, David C

♦Pilcher, Thomas I

Pixley, Sardis C

Pixley, Wilbur R C

Powers, George W C

Pramer, David C

Pratt, Edgar J., Captain H

Pratt, Joel A H

Pratt, Joseph L., Captain H

Quant, William H I

Rae. William I

Ramberg. Paul H

Rankin, George H H

Rami, Lallemand H H

*Rice, Seymour 2d C

Robinson, James H

Rodewalt, John H C

*Rolof, William H

*Rosser, Ernst I

Russell. Thomas O.. O. M. Sergt.

♦Salisbury, Samuel I

Sanders. Samuel C C

Savage, James —

Schermerhorn, Lawrence C

Sewell, George E I

Sherburne, Ceorge A K

Sherman. John W C

Sherman, Silas T H

Slocum, James, Rand.

Smith, Byron G K

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

133

Smith, John I

Smith, John C C

Smith, Robert H

Smith, Robert W I

Solverson, John C H

Stark, Lorenzo H I

Steele, George W K

Stewart. Archibald H K

Stoner, John I

Storey, Columbus C

Storey, Elliott C

Stupfell. Charles H C

Sweet, Jacob D

Sweet, Marion D D

Tallmadge. Asa C

Taylor, Luke I

Thompson, Albert C

Totten, Lyman C

Townsend, Nicholas I

Townsend. Paul H I

Tremper. John M I

Van Buren, Sylvester H C

Van De Bog-art, Isaac 1

Van I >e Bogart, Napoleon I

\\ aters, James I

WClih, Melvin M.. Band.

Webster, lames X K

Weed. Myron W II

Weed. Nathaniel Jr 11

Weicher, Nicholas H

Welch. Daniel I

Welch, John II C

Welch, William II I

Welton. Charles W H

Welton. Laban C H

West, Ralph I

Weston, Allien 11 K

Whitmore, Elias D

Wicke, John F. W C

Wilc<>\, Florence F C

WVilkins, Alden I

Wilson, Charles A C

Winegar, Alfred I C

Winne, James 1

Young, Israel W B

FOURTEENTH [NFANTRY.

Bender, Matthew W K

Bradburv. Charles II

I liiit'm.m. Robert O K

Stockdale. Elisha I

FIFTEENTH INFANTRY.

Abby, Byron D

Anderson. Lars ( ■

Andreassen, Olaf I

Barr, Jabez D

Bjornsen, Nils I

Gillard, Charles A D

Hanson, Ole K

Johnson, John I)

Nelson, Rasmus K

I 'ederson, Anders H

en K

Rice, Uberl E K

Sorenson. 1 fans C

134

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

SIXTEENTH INFANTRY.

Barhydt, Lewis H B

Barhydt. Ransom B

Comstock, Peter D D

*Dart, Charles B

Fox, George H., Captain B

Fox, Randolph A B

Hollenbeck, Aaron B

Hollenbeck, George D B

Hoye, John B

Kavanaugh, Dennis F

Mann. Leonard G

Reynolds, Joseph F

Riley, Patrick F

Tullar, Sidney B., ist Lieut B

Wood. Edgar A H

SEVENTEENTH INFANTRY.

Browning. Joseph F

Daly, James A

Delany, Frank F

Delany, Patrick F

Delany, Thomas F

Dougherty, James B

Dwyer, William F

**Griffin, John F

Keenan, John ist F

Keenan, John 2d F

Kelley, Peter F

McBride, John F

**McCormick, Patrick F

Murphy, Patrick B

Purcell, Martin F

Roach, John F

Ryan, John F

Scanlon, Timothy F

Shelley, George F

Stokes, Cornelius F

Sullivan, Patrick F

Tark, John D

Taylor, Thomas H I

Tesch, Friederich F

Walsh, James F

Walsh, Thomas F

Whalen, Tohn F F

EIGHTEENTH INFANTRY.
Bi'iggs. George II.. Assl Surgeon. Hill, Zelotes

NINl III Mil IM- WTRY.

Baltus, Joseph F

Chase, Philo \V., Asst. Surgeon.
I 'evi ndorf, I >aniel B., Surgeon.

Edwards, 1 >a\ id E

I [ageman, Friedrich F

Kingsburj , Theodore A., Hosp. Stew

Nelson, Peter A B

Sheldon. Kirk W A

Steeps, Friedrich F

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

135

TWENTIETH INFANTRY.

Burt. Roswell . . D

*Butts, Charles W D

Clark, Daniel D

**Corliss, Jonathan D

Cox, William D

Drake, Charles H D

*Delano, Edgar C D

Delany, Thomas D

Doane, Sanford D

Ellis, Edgar E., 1st Lieut D

Farnsworth, William H., 2d Lt. D

Gardner, Eugene F D

Gillette, Almerin, Captain D

Grimes, Terence D

Holland, Cornelius O D

Huntress, Samuel D D

Jennings, Whitney G D

Ketchpaw, Alurillo W D

King, George W D

Knowlton, Freeman T D

McKaig, Emmett D

Madden, James H D

Mountain, David D

O'Connor, Peter J D

Parr, Thaddeus G

Phelps, George H D

Read, Charles G D

** Remington, Henry S D

Rockwell, James L D

*Romain, John B D

Safford, Peter D

Stephens, J. Dwight D

Taylor, Ralph W D

Wood, Henry C D

TWENTY-SECOND INFANTRY.

Adams, William D

*Aikin, James P C

* \ikin. Theron C

Albro, Henry D

*Allen, Darius T C

Allen, Dwight S C

Anderson, Edward B

* Avery, Thomas D

Ayers, Benjamin F D

*Ayres, Winfield S D

Bailey, James B

Bailey, John C

Baker, Francis E B

Balcortl, William R C

Barlow, William W D

Barr. Robert C

Beach. George W D

Becker, Marcus D

Belding, George T., Com. Sergt.

Bellows, Leonard H D

Blanchard. Caleb S., Asst. Surgeon.

Blanchanl. Charles C D

Blanchard, E. Darwin D

Blodgett, William D

Bond. Alfred B

I >i K 'die. David C

I'.' mm, Zadock II D

Braliaxon, William D

Briggs, James C D

Briggs, Joseph D

Bright, U illiam H C

Brown, ' ieorge If., Captain.... B

Buell, I 1 1 . 1 1 les E., 1st Lieut C

Buhre, < harles E C

136

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

I Sullen, Robert C

Burbank, Jerome, Asst. Surgeon.

Burdick. Albert D D

Burdick, John M D

Burdick, William D D

Burk, Andrew C

**Burns, Michael C

Button, Ezra W C

Cansdell, Henry, Surgeon.

Carey, Julian M C

Carey, Peter C

Chapin, Monroe C

Chapman, Menzo W D

Chittenden, Albert C

Church, Mattoon A C

Clark, Charles A C

HI ark, George E D

Clark, John W C

( ioburn, George, Jr D

Coburn, John C D

Cone, Ela C

Cone, John J., Principal Musician.

Cone, Sylvester C

**Congdon, John R D

Conklin. John \ 'D

Conrick, J. Oscar, Adjutant.

*Cornue, Albert C

( < mil, Thomas B

Crandall, Charles W D

1 rane, Fernando C

1 ullen, Martin B

Cunningham, Levi G D

Cutler. Daniel T D

Cutler, Riley II D

Dame, James F 11

I (arrow, Silas H C

I )avey, Joseph (

I ).i\ idson, Thomas I D

1 (avis, Edw in F D

Davis, Harrison D

Davis, Henry S D

Dayton, John S C

Delap, Wesley D

*Deming, William H C

Densmore, Chauncey C

*Dix, John P C

Dockstater, Albert D D

Dudley, Charles E., 1st Lieut. . . . D

Easton, Chauncey O D

Eddy, Harvey C C

Edwards, Evan D

Edwards, John K D

*Ellis, Calvin G C

Fay, John B

**Fellows, Amos C C

*Fellows, Elnathan C

Ficht, John George D

Fleming, James B

Foster, James M D

**Fuhr, Wendel D

Gage, Chauncey D D

Gibson, William L C

Gleason, Edward C

Gleason, William Erskine C

Goodwin, Almon . " C

( ioodw in. Edwin D

( rray, Elihu W C

( Gregory, Myron L D

♦Griffin, James D

( rroshong, William D

Hale, Joel C

Hall. Henry D

♦Hall, Willard M D

I [and, Lacon 1 C

1 [arrison, Orville N C

Hart. Edwin R C

I [enry, William C

1 feuston, Reniamin C

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

137

I lines, John D

Hodgkins, Warren C

Hodgkinson, Joseph D

Holcomb, James J C

Howe, Andrew J C

Howe, Myron W C

Hudson. Clark L C

Hunt, Henry C D

Hunt, Walter G D

Hyde. Legrand D C

* Ingham, Hamilton C

**Jacobs, George D

Johnson, David B C

Johnson, Harrison R D

Johnson, ( )rson D D

Jones, David R D

Jones, Evan D

Jones, William D

Kathan, Faylander D

'*Kavanaugh, Thomas D

Kay, Edwin C

Kellam, Alphonso G Major

Kenney. Stephen D

Kingman. Isaac W., 1st Lieut.. C

Knapp. William D

Knilans, George D

Knowles, Stephen, 2d Lieut.... C

Kober, Herman B

Leach, Lyman W C

Lewis, Henry \V C

Lewis, John J I

Lobdell, Marion C I

Lytic Henry C

McArthur, James D D

McDonald. John D

McDonell. John C C

McLain, John D

*McMillen, Robert G C

Marcy, Lucius S D

May. Darwin R., Capt C

Menzie, Charles H D

Merriam, Frank C

Merriam, Noah C

.Millard, Maxon P C

Moorfield, Thomas C

: Morgan. Benjamin F C

Morin, James C

* : Morrison, Thomas D

MJ isher, Lorenzo D D

Mnsher, Thomas D

Nelson, Sumner B

Noyes, Harvey J C

( )sborne, Hazard D

Osborne, John D

( >wen, James C

( hven, Wartroop S D

*Parker, Henry D

Peck. Phineas Page D

Perry, J. Lyman D

Perry, William Norman D

*Pierce, Franklin S C

Pierce, Theodore S C

Pope. Alexander B

I 'ope, Benjamin B

Powell, Jonathan C

I'unlv, George F D

Purdy, Henry D

Read. Rollin C

Redford, Robert C

Rewey, Fayette D

Rewey, Philander D

Robbins, Henry C

Robillard, John C

Robinson, We^t I '

Rockwell. Frank M C

Rogers, \<lell>ert D. L C

138

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Rogers. John D C

*Rogers, Joshua F C

Rollins, John J D

Rollow, Lewis C

Ross, Clarkson N C

*Ross, Martin F C

*Rouse, Anthony D C

:< Rowley. John D D

Rowley. Silas R D

*Russell. Robert D

*Rust, John F C

Rutenber, Augustus C

Sanborn, Herbert J C

Saulsbury, Robert S D

Scoville, Charles W C

Scrafford. James B D

Scrafford. Marshall D

Scrantpn, William Clark D

Seymour, Benjamin C

Shimmins, Richard I

Shoemaker, Martin D

Siperly, John R D

- 'erly. Reuben D

Slocum, John R D

- th. Alexander T C

Smith. Charles \Y., Major

E th. Cornelius C

5 ith, George J C

Smith, James C

- th. Julius P D

Sm 'V. . Benjamin F C

■or. Wallace C

5l tford, David L C

ens. Martin E C

Stewart, Arthur D

51 >rk, John M C

Mbert E D

eter, Theron E C

Sullivan. Dan D

Sullivan, John D

Taylor, Orsamus J C

Thomas, Herbert H D

Thompson, William C

Tinker. William H D

Tome. Peter C

Topping. John M D

Traver, Ralph W B

Underwood, William P B

Van Brunt, Henry C

Van Wie, John C

Veley, Alonzo D

Yeley, George W D

Yoorhees. George L D

Yoorhees. Jasper C D

*Wachter, Jacob B

Wait. Porter C

Walsh, Thomas B

::\\ alton, John C C

Walworth, Jasper B D

Watkins, Charles C

Webster. Robert G C

Weeks. John A C

W'eishar. Jacob D

WVeisskopf. Peter D

Wells. A. Chandler C

W eter. James P C

Wheeler. George D

WYhilden. Robert D

White. Charles B C

White, James H C

Williams. James R D

Williams, Richard M., 2d Lieut. D

Wilson. John Melvin C

W ood, George W D

"Wood. Henry D

Wr . njamin F C

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 1 39

TWENTY-THIRD INFANTRY.

Fulcomer. Henry K * Smith. Charles

Sergeant, David P D

TWENTY-FOURTH INFANTRY.

* Cheney, Edmund W A Lynch. Bernard G

Fahey, Michael H Wheeler. Tared P Surgeon

TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY.

Jones, Lorenzo F Rose. William W C

Kane. Benjamin E

TWENTY-SIXTH INFANTRY.

Awe. Fritz C Kraemer. Johann N C

TWENTY-SEVENTH INFANTRY.

Brown. Edward I Hanson. John H

Doyle. James B A Xelson. Eric H

Falk. Ole Xelson, 1st Lieut H Peterson. Ole H

TWENTY-EIGHTH INFANTRY.

Adams, Hezekiah I Bigelow. Horace E

■Allen. Fayette L I Billings. Levi J.. Capt K

* Ambler, William K Bingham. William E., 1st Lieut. E

♦Amundsen, Bernard D Blomily. John E

Arwood, Andrew W E Bloodgood, Hiram S E

Bacon, Robert A E Bloodgood, Lewis E E

Baker. John W I Bolser, Mahlon X E

Baldwin, James A D Bonnet, Charles D

Barnes, Henry D I Bortle. Samuel E

Becker. Bernard I Bortle. Winslow E

Bell. Samuel I Bowman. William H T

Bentley. Samuel A Braasch. Ferdinand K

Bigelow, Amos E Brabazon, John E

140

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

I '.rash, John I

Brewin, John E

Briggs, William J., ist Lieut. . . K

Brigham, Truman E A

Bristol, Robert W I

Brooks, Charles E E

*Burdick, George J K

Burr, Ralph E I

Buttles, Daniel W I

Carl, Frank I

Carl, John I

Carpenter, Lewis D

Carver, Thomas Corvvin B

Castledine, William K

Catlin, John E

t award, James J K

Chamberlain, Chauncey E

( hasc. William I

( 'hene\ , Robert , A

: ( la])p, Eli I

Clawson, Garrett K

Clement, Garrett D

( lenient. Samuel D

Conant. < iordon K

I oncklin, Stephen J I

Conrv, Thomas K

Corkitt, George D

• 1 11 kins, Patrick K

Cornell, Silas K

i i miter, James W I

< lowing, < leorge 1*'.. ( 'apt K

I i i\\ Its. \^a Saxton 1

< !ox, ( lharles E

Cox, I [enry A D

Crandall, 1 torace B., Capt 1

< !riger, < ieorge P D

1 lancej . Thomas D

Daniels, Ubert 0 I

I hull, Edward 1>

Dawley, William J D

*DeGroat, George D

Deilman, Peter D

DePuy, Edwin M K

Deuel, Edwin M I

Dingman, Charles A K

Donohue, Michael I

*Dort, Amos D

Douglas, Oscar W D

Duwling, William D D

Durant, William A

Dutton, Henry O E

Early, John D

Edwards, Daniel I

Edwards, Hiram D

Eggleston, Frank I

Farrar, George H I

Faust, Franz D

*Feder, Wilhelm E

*Feiss, Benedict D

Fero, Silas K

Ferry, Charles I

*Fichler, Augustus I

Firth, Robert D

Fitzsimmons, Patrick E

Footc. Addison O I

Fox, Charles L I

* Frank, Hiram P I

*Gaskell, John I

Gaylord, John D K

*( rleason, Burnham 1

< ileason, Josiah I

( Joodrich, 1 )avid N D

"Gould, Alvin K

( bant. John D

I rrass, Nicholas T

Gray. Edmund I'. . ( 'olonel.

Groenwald, Johannes K

Groth, John F K

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

141

Guest, John I

Haage, Frederick D

Haight, Hyland B E

Hamilton, William —

*Hare, Jesse D

Harrison, John W D

Hartwell, Smith A., 2d Lieut. ... I

Hassold, Lewis K

Hawes, Lewis K., Asst. Surgeon.

Hay, Sylvanus Devillo E

Hayes, Hiram N., 1st Lieut D

Hays, Alonzo D

Heath. Amos K

Heath, Charles H E

Hebbard, Asa W., 2d Lieut E

Heiden, Henry A

"Henderson, Donald D

I lendrickson, Clesson A D

*Hibbard, Henry H I

Hicks, Jackson V I

Hills, Edwin T K

"Hills, George D

Hitchcock, Leonard S K

Hix, Henry D

*Hodge, James A D

Hodges, John I

Holmes. Charles D

I [olmes, David M I

1 1' Jton, John I

Hubbard, Alva B I

Hudson, Charles D

I Iuntley, Isaac Newton E

I I yde. George K

Jackson, James E

Jones, Francis K

Keenan, Patrick D

Kenyon, James R., Capt I

Kenyon, Ralph C E

Kershaw, Job I >

King, Farrell 1

Kinney, Francis D

Knowlton, Francis P E

Kober, Charles I

Kuhn. Charles D

Kynaston, John D

Langen, John I

Langstaff, James E

Larkin, Michael D

Lasher, John H D

Lingeman, Henry D

Loomer, William E E

Lyman, Edwin C E

McKenney, Jeremiah I

McManus, John A

Magill, Jerome B., Adjutant.

Maher, Michael I

Martel, Joseph E

Matheson, Donald I

Matheson. John I

Mayhew, William H 1

Maynard, William D

Mead, James M., 2d Lieut D

*Means, John E

Miles, John D

*Miller, Isaac D

Miner, Nathan N \

Moore, Michael E

.Morton, Ira P., Capt K

Mountain, John I

Mount ford, Aaron I )

*Murray, James I

Newcomb, Joseph J E

Nelson, Peter D

Nickerson, Gilbert E D

*Nims, 1 >ew itt I

Noblet, Joseph, Jr r

Noblet, Peter I

Noblet, Valentine 1

142

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Norcross, Edwin R E

Norton, Bernard I

*Nott, William H I

O'Brien, Michael I

**0'Brien, Patrick I

O'Brien, William I

Olsen, Gilbert D

♦O'Reagan, William I

Organ, John, Jr I

Ostermeier. Michael D

Parker, John A K

Park-. Milton B I

Patterson, Albert I

*Peake, Gilbert I

: I 'irk, John T K

Peck, William W \

Phelps, Anson D E

*Phelps, Arthur K

Phoenix, James R A

Phoenix, John W A

Pierce, ( 'harles Z D

Poland, Arthur I

Pollock, Thomas I

Potter. Alfred C I

Pratt, George W E

l\ainH'\ . Fayette S I

Redington, Edward S., Capt. ... D

Redmond, John A

Reed. Hiram H K

Reinhart, Albert D

*Robbins, Charles E D

♦Robinson, John B E

Rockwell, Charles W D

Rockwell, John B E

Rodgers, John W D

Rusch, I Icnry D

Sanford, 1 >aniel K E

Sat ight, Andrew D

Schein. ( '<mrad I

Scholl, Charles D

Scholl. Christopher D

Schroble, Charles W D

Schrom, James B., ist Lieut. . . D

Schulz, John D

Seymour. Alex. T., ist Lieut. ... I

**Shabino, Joseph A

"Short, George W I

Short, James I

Shubert, Harvey I

*Simpson, Charles H D

♦Smith, Delos C I

Smith, George ist —

Smith, George D

*Smith, Lyman D E

Smith, Lyndsey J., Capt I

Smith. Oscar D

Snider. John E

Snow, Eli H E

Spencer, Lorenzo D K

Spoor, Charles I

♦Sterling, James H I

Stewart, John A E

Storms, Charles I

Stnmg. Solomon I D

Stuit, Charles I

♦Sullivan, Jeremiah 1

Sullivan, Michael E

Summers, Stephen E

Smth. .Matthias D

Sutcliffe, Sam I

Sutherland, Morris S K

Taylor, Charles H 1

Taylor, lames D

Taylor, James B E

Teller, Johann D

l hi imas, Francis I

I hi imas, Jacob D

Thwing, Emery Z E

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Tiffany, Alfred W . . I

Timlin, Patrick D

Tolifson, Bringel E

Trautman, George D

Troy, Edward D

Tucker, George D

Tuller, Chesley B.. 2d Lieut. . . . B

Utley, Cyrus I

Vanderpool, Aaron L I

Vaughn, Alonzo I

Vaughn, Henry Clay I

*Vaughn. John I

**Yellam. Andrew E

:|AYalker. Jacob D

Ware. Charles A D

Waters, Isaac I

Watts. Henry H. 1st Lieut. . . . D

Webster. Albert J C

*Webster, Henry C F

Webster, Wheeler B E

Weeks, Clark O I

**Weeks, Spencer J I

Weiss, Joseph D

*Welch, Hiram J E

Wells, Edward I

West, Dennis I

Wheelock, Norman D

*\\Tiite, Seymour I

*Whitton, John I

Wilber, David C E

Wilkins, Horace T E

Wilkinson, Horatio N D

Wilkinson, Joseph E

nVilliord, Hardy E

Williams, Emery D I

Williams, Harry —

Wilson, John H

Winslow, George M D

Woodward, William H T

Wray, Thomas . . . .' D

Wright, Benjamin F K

Wright, Duncan I

Wylie, George W., Quartermaster.

Yeomans, Cyrus D

Young, Menzo K

*Zeeter, Frank K

TWENTY-NINTH INFANTRY.

Bowen, Edward H.

THIRTIETH INFANTRY.

Vlkins. Henry Breckinridge . . . K Bruce, Robert C

Adkins, William K Eastwood, Reuben K

THIRTY-FIRST INFANTRY.

Hanchett, Charles C. C ( !

THIRTY-SECOND INFANTRY.

Comstock, Peter D A Uhflettig, Caspar C

144

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

THIRTY-THIRD INFANTRY.

Coney, Henry —

Dilley, Oscar H G

*Lyon, Samuel E F

Xickerson, Charles W E

THIRTY-FOURTH INFANTRY.

Hoeger, Louis

G Shavor, Edward P A

THIRT\r-FIFTH INFANTRY.

Beilby, James D

Brainerd, Sardis D

*Brown, Millard F H

*Carley, George R H

*Chappell. John D

Corhin, Alfred G

*Cronin. Timothy D

*Diven, John H

Huntley, Delos W H

* Jones, San ford F

I iddle, George E

*Liddle, Thomas E

Liddle, William E

McCarty, Charles G

McDonald, Michael —

Markham, Alfred P H

*Nicolai, Henry F

Owen, Ole G

Parker. Luther E

Ray. Henry E.. First Lieut I

Stevens, Martin E., Second Lieut. G

Sturtevant, Edwin, Capt A

Taylor, Richard F E

Thompson, Frank A

*Thompson. Ole G

Wall, Walter I

HIRTY-SIXTH INFANTRY.

*Balcom, Russell M C

Blakesley, Forrest —

< ihase, Albert O H

**Cleaves, Corydon L C

< one, I [enry C

*Dayton, William W C

I n wr\ . Frederick A

Dibol, Daniel II \

Flint, Perry G \

< ierman, Zenas Crane A

Griffin, Charles E., Capt A

I [and, < reorsre C A

Hart. Walter O \

Haskell. Martin A

♦Hudson, Harvey W C

Kelsey. William E

Locke. William E

Long, Edward J A

Lucky, William \

I .nun, James T A

Mead, Ezekiel A

Miller. Alanson, Hospital Steward..

*Miller, Clarkson. Surgeon

Palmer, Ralph I H

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

145

*Peck, Truman G

*Pultz. Abraham B

Putnam, Levi A

Reagles, Ezra A

Shabino, Antoine E

*Stagg, Charles N E

*Stevens, John E C

**Upright, William A

Van Nest, Peter S., Chaplain

Virgin. Charles \V A

Wandell, Henry G

Weber, Albert C G

\\ halen, Daniel D

Whipple, George W G

Willsey, John J C

: Wilson, George E

Wright, Charles H D

THIRTY-SEVENTH INFANTRY.

Aldrich, Samuel K A

Allen, Thomas J A

Artie, Courtland J A

Babcock, Charles R G

Baldwin, Francis A G

Barnard, Francis D A

Barron, George G

Briggs, Thomas A

Carman, Henry H

Carney. John A

Carney, Xelson H A

Case, Charles —

Clark. Joseph E G

Cline, George A

**Cline, George, Jr F

Coyne, Thomas —

Cross, George L I

•^Cruver, John M G

Davis, Charles —

*Duley, John \V B

Dunn, Payson F

Everly, John —

' Gardner, Eugene C

' rleason, Michael. Jr B

1 [arrison, John L C

I [erber, Ferdinand A

(10)

Hodgson, Albert F

Hodgson, George \Y F

*Hunt, Oliver H A

Hutchinson, Albert W A

Hutchinson, Robert A

Jones, San ford, First Lieut. ... A

Lynch, Patrick E

Lyon, Edgar I

Mfclntyre, John G

M. Mullen, John D

Miller, Jacob F

Moore, George L —

Moore, William H A

Morehouse, Robert D

Mulheron, Peter E

*Neff. Charles J G

Norton, Edward T H

Odell, John A A

**Peck, Carroll M H

Peterson, Peter \

I 'owers, Clarence L G

*Reiner, Johannes A

Rosenkrantz, Anson C \

Roundy, Daniel ( '.., Surgeon

Roundy, Porter \\\. Hosp. Steward

Rowe, Georgi \ H

146

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Sargent, Edward N I

Sew ard, Joel E

*Sprague, Henry R G

Thon, Jacob I

Tapper, Oramel E A

Weed, Edward Z A

:\\"ells, William G

**Wheeler, Benjamin F A

Whitford, John F C

THIRTY-EIGHTH INFANTRY.

Booth, Stephen M E

Brennan, James F

Byrum, Carlos C G

( litirehill, Christopher E

* '.( mklin, Daniel H

Cook, William H K

Duncan, John R F

Ellis, Henry C F

Godfrey, John D D

I [askins, Daniel S K

Jefferson, James K

Mooney, Patrick I

< Hmstead, Ephraim H

Parkins, John WT K

* Pells, David .'.... K

Prouty, Albert S K

Ryan, .Michael G

Stevens, Jacob C K

White, Tohn G

THIRTY-NINTH INFANTRY.

Bartholomew, William

Beckw ith, Alanson

( hamberliri, Everett, Captain .

Chamberlin, Sidney

Estabrook, Edwin C

Cooled, Fritz

Gunnison, Samuel

Hollenbeck, John M I

Howard. Willis B B

Janes, Mlortimer A

Mckinney. Jeremiah

Mitchell, Isaac

Thayer, Lyman B

Zinn, William

FORTIETH INFANTRY.

Allen. S. Merritt B

\llton, Andrew I)

Andrews, Edward I

Bailey, Willard C F

l'>al<!\\ in. John F

Hall, Rufus R C

Barker, < harles W F

Beckley, Edwin R . . .' I"

I lennett, Jay W I

Bennett, Sanford Fillmore, 2d

Lieutenant F

Billings, Henry M F

Birge, Charles D

Black, Charles L I

Blair, Albert B

Blanchard, Charles C, Hosp. Stew'd.
Blanchard, Ofrin W.. Surgeon.
Brennan, William I

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

147

Brett, James Elverton E

Burdick, Matthew F

Burt, Roswell F

Campbell, John F

Carswell, Orland F

Case, Adelbert C

Cheney, Augustus J., Captain. ... F

Clapper, Frank F

Clark, Dan W F

Clark, Daniel F

Clark, Horace L F

Clarke, James Dallas F

Clute, James W F

Colburn, Mahlon F

Corey, Barnabas M F

Cotton, Russell F

Crandall, Albert F

Crandall, Paul B F

Cravath, Pitt D

Curtis, Hiram H B

Cutler, Charles W F

Davis, Levi : F

Densmore, George F

Dunham, Ephraim F

Eaton, Orrin C E

Elmer, Philander D F

Faber, Jacob I

Ferris, Isaac Lewis D

Field, Alden F

Fitzgerald, Richard F

Flanders, Philip W F

Flint, Myron L F

Gibbs, Cyrus C C

♦Gilbert; Charles H., 1st Lieut. . . I'

Gillson, Erastus I

Gleason, James I

Graves, Dennison A D

T fauna, William S F

Hatch, Nathan R F

Hauser, John H.. (apt E

Hauser, Robert B E

Hodges, George AV F

Hodgkinson, Charles J F

Holden, William J C

I loll i st it, Harrison I' K

Hollister, Kinner N., Captain. . . I

Hull, Clarence E D

Hutton, John, Jr F

Hutton, William F

Hutchins, Fred WT F

Jeffers, Thompson F

Jefford, Thomas Jr I

Jones, William B

Kaye, Adin F

Kelsey, Benjamin F

Kennedy, John F

Kent, Isaac F

Kingman, Arthur L K

Kinne, George F

Kinney, Horace B F

Kishner, John Charles F

Larson, James F

Lasher, Peter B I

Latta, William B B

Lauderdale, James E C

•Lomas, Joseph F

Losee, ( rilbert C F

Met annon, John F

McCracken, Frank L C

McDonnell; John F

McGraw, John W F

McKinley, John C

Malloi \ , I [enry Levi F

.Marriott. 1 1 enry H F

Merwin, James II F

.Miner, Rufus If D

: Moody, David X F

Moore, William II F

148

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Morefield, Thomas William F

Mosher, Jacob R F

O'Brien, John K

Ottman, Philip M F

Palmer, Norman P F

Phelps, Jonah F

I'illsburv. Marcus A C

Potter, Lorenzo F

Potter, Monroe F

Randall, Jonathan L F

Ray, \V. Augustus, Colonel.

Read, Edward P F

Reap, Henry I

Redneld, William H F

Redford, Farrington F

Reeder, Stephen F

Rockwell, Aklis L D

Rollow, Charles D

Rolo, Daniel PI F

Sanborn, William Howard F

Shader, John E F

Sheldon, William E B

Simmons, William H F

♦Small, Henry J F

Spooner, Henry Fish, 2d Lieut. . F

Swinney, Edwin F

Taintor, Benjamin C F

Taylor, Luke F

Taylor, William R C

Truax, Henry F F

Trumbull, Russell S F

Utter, George S D

Vincent, Oscar F F

Watson, Van Ness C F

Weaver, Franklin C F

Westgate, William R B

Wheeler, Charles F F

York, Dennison C

FORTY-SECOND INFANTRY.

Adams, Luther II F

Uexander, George W G

I laker, H. John B

Baker, Zerah T G

Ball, John F

Benedict, Andrew G F

I'.t t:.;, I l<vr!.iah 1\

I '" >hiK'Y. Archibald F

Brown, Richard K C

Bryant, I .cw is N F

Burke, William B

(lark. Myron J G

*Coan. William I

i olton, Ebenezer F

Cutler, John II G

I )aln mple, I [amilton S F

De I'.iw. William ( i

Delap, Ira F

Dunham, James L F

Durston, Edward W G

Ferris, William T H

( iardner, William D. S C

Goodrich, Harvey C F

Greenman, Jacob F F

I [alverson, I lalvcr D

I I arris. Benjamin F G

I [arris, James F

I [enshaw , Charles 11 F

Hicks. Richard S G

Hitch, Edward G

*Hollenbeck, Robert G

Jackson, Fdson I> B

Kenyon, Monroe F

I aw ton, lames 11 G

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

149

Lawton, Samuel G

Lloyd. John F

Lyman, Walter C

McCart, Freeman F

Morter, George C

Oleson, Jacob D

Osborn. William G

*Parker. Ellis J K

Parks, Jonathan B F

Parks, William A F

Pette, Ambrose F

Rand. Edmund G

Remmel. Charles F

Renshaw. Andrew J D

Rice, Lafayette M K

Roach, Thomas G

Ri muds, George W G

Sawyer. Adna F

See, Alexander H

Smith. Everett H G

Soule, Robert F

Starkson, John C

Sweet. Enoch F

Thomas, James K

Tierney, George B

Watson, John G

Welch, Leander F

Welch. Seymour F

Whitney, Alva L K

Zelie. Myron G

FORTY-THIRD INFANTRY.

Abernethy, Alexander C

Assenmacher, John D

As>enmacher, Peter D

Birkenmeyer, Joseph A

Brandt, James H C

Brandt, Samuel C

Brownell, Horace P A

Brownell, Otis I

Collins, Henry F

Durfuse, George K

Durfuse. John K

Eck, Frederick K

Englerth, Adam K

Eugene, John B., Quartermaster.

■ l-'.vre, ( Jeorge M 1

Fitzgerald, Jonathan C

Freeman, John H C

Garvin, Eber N C

Gillett, Robert A K

Goodale, Charles J A

Gregory. Uriah F

Groner, Michael C

Harris. Henry F

*Hatch, Nathan H A

Hazen, Amos C

Holcomb, Jeremiah A

Joslin, Albert F

Kelli igg, Amos C

Kellogg, Charles C

King (or Kling). William C

Loomis, Benjamin L C

1 .1 lomis, Joseph C

Loomis, ( (scar M C

McKee, Abraham G

Nau, Jacob G

:' Nye, Austin C

Osborne, Robert I

( Isborne, Thomas I! A

( >wen, William T F

Peer, Miller C

I' inck, Edward F

I '< ii iler. Sumner C

150

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Raftry, Thomas K

Rasmussen, John A

Ries, Charles I

Russell, Thomas O., 2d Lieut.. H

Satorius, Matthias K

Seibert. George K

Shaw, William F —

Snider. David D C

Snow, Willis S F

*Spencer, Archibald I

Stanton, Leroy A

*Tenney, Nelson M I

Thomas, Charles E A

Trumbull. David D

Tuohey, John K

Walsh, Thomas I

Wentz, Andrew F

West, James I

Wilson, John S F

FORTY-FOURTH INFANTRY.

Abies, Cornelius G Lad, Knud O

Flitcroft, Lorenzo D D

Giesme, Ole J —

Hauf, Simon G

Kling, William B

Krouse, John B

*Lederer, Joseph G

McGarry, Thomas E

Miller, Charles Henry G

Perry, William N., 1st Lieut. . . . F

Roach, John M E

FORTY-FIFTH INFANTRY.

Bruestel, Joseph F

I icwirth, William C

Ewig, Anton E

Geile, Gerrit C

Gessner, George E

( Iroh, John E

1 lass, August E

Herzog, Henry E

Kunde, Albert E

Meisner, Frederick F

Roth, Jacob C

Schelinski, Martin E

Wesche, Christian —

Wirson, Tohn E

FORTY-SIXTH I \ FANTRY.

\11dcrson, Augustus E

Briggs, Joseph F

P.i ' 'ker, Theodore E

Burton, Edward E

( Carpenter, Silas I ) E

1 up, William C K

id . Merrill E

Elvidge, Mark K

Ericksori, Nelson E

I lanson, Johannes E

I feath, Cyrus D E

I limy, George N E

I linry. William L E

1 [inkley. Albert E

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

IS'

Hotchkiss, Moses E

Laveson, Lafe E

Logan, William A E

Morris, Timothy F

Nelson, Gilbert E

O'Brien, Michael E

Oleson, Lewis E

Oleson, Ole E

Parsons, Frederick O E

Pattee, Gad H E

Reeves, Julius E

Snyder, James R E

Stout, James M E

Thayer, Ruel E

Wall, Thomas . . E

Way, Hiram E

Wilkinson, George E

Williams, Albert E

Yeaman, Wishart E

FORTY-SEVENTH INFANTRY.

Appleyard, Thomas B

Bath, Irving, Ffosp. Steward.

Bissell, Charles —

Brennan, William E

Broderick, Luke F

Biitz, Albert E

Closson, Henry G G

Coleman, John L B

Conklin, Charles W., 1st Lieut. . B

Conlin. Matthew H

Cooley, Rufus, Jr., Chaplain.

Copeland, William B

Coulthard, William B

Doane, Leland B

Doane. Sanford B

Dousman, John P F

Enright, John B

Estabrook, Edwin C B

French, Charles B F

Gleason, James E

Hamilton, Edgar C E

Hamm, John B

Hammer, Carl B

Hargrave, Faithful B

Harrington, Coleman B

Harrington, George E G

Hayden, James H

Heald, William F

Hoffer, Charles F

Hotton, James B

Ingham, Thomas B

Kampstra, Albert F

Lombard, Avinzo F

Lombard, Jefferson G F

McCarty, Patrick : . . . . F

McClymont, James B

McDonald, Lemuel F

Magill, Alonzo I '.

Magill, Henry H B

Marsielje, Isaac F

Mericle, Abram I I

.Merrill, James H B

Mitchell, Edward I'.

Murphy, William B

Nelson, < rustav I >

Noblet, Alexander B

Noblet, John B

Noblet, Peter A B

O'Brien, John B

O'Hrien, Thomas II

O'Brien, William E

Olson, John I )

152

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Olson, Martin . ■ D

Owens, Michael B

Pearl, Edward S F

Randall. John J B

Redmond, John —

Richmond, Thompson P F

Ritchie, Patrick B

Rockwell, Henry —

Sheridan, Patrick B

Stillman, James H

Stradtman, Christian F

Thayer. Edgar ■. ... B

Thornton, Mathias F

Toole, John —

Trainer, William B

Vandewege, Martin F

Ward, George B

Watkins, George C B

Wood, Tohn R B

FORTY-EIGHTH INFANTRY.

Armstrong, William B

I'arhvdt, Horton I

Beckwith, Samuel F

Brockel, Nicholas B

Buell, Leroy N., Serg't Major.

Carver; Aaron, ist Lieut K

Chappell, Henry B

Christianson, Brandell B

Estey, Marquis E F

French, George H A

( rould, < 'harles L F

Graham, Charles T A

I [ampsi m, Charles F

Harris. Charles F

1 hath, Jeremiah A

Heath, Marion \

Jones, Charles B

Kaiser, Ehrhardt D

Kaiser, Frederick D

Loefert, Gottfried F

Martyn, James L F

Mueller. Fritz F

Rogers, William F

Sanders, Henry F

Schiesser, Paul B

Schofield, James A

Smith. Christian F

Tess. William F

Tupper, Henry N F

Van Horn. James H B

Walbert, William B

FORTY-NINTH IN PANTRY.

Andrus, Arthur D K

Andrus, Francis L I\

Balcom, William A K

Barber, George W K

Barker, Alexander K

I >egley, James T K

I'iencman. Joseph C

Blanchanl. Charles C, Hosp Stew.
Blanchard, Orrin W., Surgeon.

Blunt, Francis K

Booker. < ieorge D

Brewer, George W K

nett, David M D Brown, Charles H K

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

153

Brown, Joseph H D

Buckles, Robert D

Buening, Ludwig H

Burt. Linus D K

Byard, John K

Campbell. Patrick F

Campbell. Robert K

Carlin. Patrick K

Chadwick, William K

Chapman, Joseph C

Cheney, .Augustus J.. Major.

Clark. Benajah D

Dalrymple. Hilas H K

Davis, John A K

Davis, John C K

Delap, Henry K

Derby, George W K

Dickens, Edwin G K

Dickens. Thomas S K

Dodge, Otis K

Edgerly, William M D

Ewen. Wallace D K

Fairchild. David K

Finch. Abraham K

Finch. Charles K

Fuller, Thomas. Jr K

Gaffy. Daniel F

Gleason, Jacob L F

Gunderson. Oliver C

Hadley. Luther K

Harding, Abel G K

Harding, Henry N K

Hare, Albert J C

Hauser. John TT.. Captain D

Hauser, Robert B D

Hicks. John K

I [1 ifstatter, George F K

Hogan, Patrick K

Hogan, Pierce K

♦Humphrey, West B K

Huntress, Hiram B., 1st Lieut. . G

Isham, Francis Devillo K

Jacobs, Elder F K

Johnson, Andrew . . K

Jones, Franklin K .

Jones, Frederick E K

Kelley, Francis C

Kingman, Arthur L K

Kishner, George K

Knapp, Henry D K

Larson, James K

Lewis, Oliver K

Lloyd, John G

McClellan, Charles C

Malier, .Michael C

Mervin, James H C

Moody, William K

Moon, Joseph K

Morgan, Franklin D K

Morgan, Solomon P K

Xicul. William K

O'Hara, David C

' Heson, Halver K

Parshall, Jonas K

♦Patrick, Levi K

Paul, Oscar S K

Paul, Sylvester K

Payne. Charles 11

Pemberton, John K

Phillips, David T K

Phillips, William K

Pratt, George W K

Randall, Rozell K.

Redman. Timothy K

Riley, Hugh C

Roy, William II K

Sanborn. David O K

Sanford, Daniel K., 1st Lieut... G

154

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Saxe, Louis K

*Sheldon, Eugene A K

Sheldon, Horace K

Sheldon, William K

Sholes, Elisha C D

Sinn, William B

Skinner, Austin F I

Slack, George K

Smith, John A., Captain K

Smith, Stephen H D

Southwjck, Henry K

Southwick, James K

Stone, Henry A K

Stork, Nelson K

Stout, Nelson K

Stout, Zebedee M K

Sturtevant, Charles A K

Summers, William K

Topping, Josiah M H

Tostevin, John K

*Tubbs, Hiram D K

Van De Bogart, George W. . . . . K

Vrooman, Daniel E K

*Ward, Dustin K

Westinghouse, Julius' K

Whalen, Patrick H K

Wharry, Robert K

Williams, Ole K

Wilson, James K

Wilson, William K

Wright, James A K

FIFTIETH INFANTRY.

Noyes, William E Townley. Barney

Smith, William E E

FIFTY-FIRST INFANTRY.

Coleman, John E

Concklin, Thomas H K

Gregory, David H

Healey, Hugh F

Horn, John A A

|i ihnsi "i, Samuel E

l"linson, William E

Knight, Charles E

Maxwell, George W B

Orr, William E

Parker, Samuel A

Ryan. Thomas F H

Thorn, William H

Wolf, Samuel \

II FTY-SECOND INFANTRY.

Bennett, 1 >avid M.. ist Lieut.. .

. A

Graham, Charles C, < >. M

1- t. Paul 1'

Keeler, Norman A.. Adjutant.

Lucenski, Nicholas D

Winter. Simon D

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 1 55

U. S. ARMY.

Armington, George W. . . .4th Inf. Moore, William 4th Inf.

Brockway, Stephen 13th Inf. Munn, Ransom 13th Inf.

Brown, Frederick M. . 1st Vol. Eng. Olson, Andrew P 4th Inf.

Doane, George 4th Inf Reynolds, Martin 4th Inf.

Drake, James 4th Inf. Roberts, Joseph 4th Inf.

Drake, John 4th Inf. Rowland, Howard R 4th Inf.

Fairbanks, Carroll, 1st Sharp Shoot- Ryan, Michael 13th Inf.

ers. Schultz, Frederick 13th Inf.

Foster. Henry 4th Cav. Springer, James 13th Inf.

Gercke, Charles .. Hospital Steward Thomas, Henry C 4th Inf.

Johnson, John. 1st Sharp Shooters. Tillotson, John S., G, 1st Sh'p Sh't's

Kelley, Patrick 4th Inf. Tyler. John D., G, 1st Sh'p Sh't's

May, Eli,. .Hancock's Corps, K 2d *Tyler, Loren K., G, 1st Sh'p Sh'ts

Mellon, John 4th Inf. Van Dyke, Abner, Hancock Corps,

Mitchell, Michael. .A, 1st Vol. Eng. White, John 13th Inf.

ENLISTED FROM OTHER STATES,

Allen, Augustus C 7th 111. Inf. Hope, John P C, 90th HI. Inf.

Beckwith. Albert C. . . 1st la. Bat. How, William — 13th 111. —

Brown, Charles A, 36th 111. Inf Labo, Abraham H, -2d 111. Inf.

Chester, Robert. . . . 111. Cav. Moore, Jabez H., Lieut

Cowley, James C, 90th 111. Inf B, 1st 111. Lt. Art.

Durkee, Harris R C, 9th 111. Cav L, 2d 111. Lt. Art.

Farr, Edward D — 72d 111. Inf. Perry, Charles A I, 42d 111. Inf.

Fitzgibbon. Edward. C, 90th 111. Inf. Sloan, Patrick C, 90th 111. Inf.

Fitzgibbon, James. C, 90th 111. Inf. Sullivan. John.... — , 36th 111. Inf

Gross, Daniel C, 9th 111 Cav. Whelan, John — , 23d 111. Inf.

Holland, John H..II, 95th. HI. Inf.

1 . S. NAVY.

1 tar* t V I'.aggs ( iharles I.. Hicks.

Calvin Barnes.

U. S. COLORED TROOPS.

John Cosley 29th Inf. Charles Hunt Unassigned

John Gillman 29th Inf. Deny McDonald Unassigned

156

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

William Mason Unassigned Robert Sercer 29th Inf.

James Owens Unassigned Andrew Smith Unassigned

Henry E. Randolph ..Unassigned Abraham Tillman Unassigned

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.

For the war with Spain in 1898, four regiments of National Guard were
taken from Wisconsin for service in the field. The company at Whitewater,
then and now Company C, First Infantry, was filled by recruiting, assembled
at Camp Harvey and ordered southward. Its officers were Capt. Leverette
H. Persons, First Lieut. William H. Hahn, Second Lieut. Edward T. Weyher.
and of its enlisted men, sixty-two were of this county. Besides these, nine
men enlisted in other companies of the'same regiment, and sixteen served in
Company A, Fourth Infantry. None of these men reached Cuba, but four
died in service, namely: Bloxham, September 8, T898: Miller, August 3;
Southwick, September 4; Whaley. September 6, the first three at Jackson-
ville, the last-named at Second Division Hospital. The enlisted men were:

FIRST INFANTRY.

Ames, William M B

\nk' uncus, ( harles H C

Balsiey', Dottie . C

Barfell. I [an ey C

Bloxham, Alfred W C

Boswell. Carlton M C

Brunet, Abelardo H

Buckley, Henry C

Cadman, Henry J C

Charles, George R., Corp C

Coleman, Abner C

( 1 mroj , Martin, Jr C

Coolcv, I larry J C

Crandall, Bowen C

( 'utter, Elmer A., 1st Sergt C

I lerthick, Julius M E

1 >c\ inc. William J C

Everson, Edward O C

I leorge, Willie R C

Hahn, Arthur H.J C

Hall, John W\. Corp C

Heffren, Charles G., Corp C

Henry, Herbert A C

Higley, Arthur G., Corp C

Huntress, Joseph J C

Ingalls, John P F

Johnson, Charles E., Serg't. . . . C

Johnson, Olaf, Serg't C

Kamm, Ernest C

Koelzer, William L C

Lilienthal, Emil A C

Ludtke, Willie A C

Lyon, .George W., Corp C

McBride, Thomas C

McLaren. Paul, Corp C

Marsh, Fitch G C

Marskie, Philip H C

Miller. Louis R C

Murphy, Henry Francis. Corp. . C

Odell, Charles E C

Odenwalder, William C C

Page, Benjamin II C

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

157

Poole, James E C

Poole, Thomas C

Protheroe, Lewis C

Reichel, John A

Remy, Francis G E

Rosrnan, Rolf P. M., Serg't.. C

Schneider, William H C

Shimmins, Harry W C

Smith, Ouincy K C

Southwick, Herman E C

Spracklin, Charles A. H., Quar-
termaster Sergeant C

Stolf, Charles B

Thorne, Edward J C

Tibbets, Clark C

Trolle, Sophus \

Wegner, Henry A C

Whaley, Ray B

Wing. William G. N C

Wolf. Christjohn C

Wrigglesworth. James C

COMPANY A, FOURTH INFANTRY.

Burns, John.

Concklin. Henry W. , Corp.
DeProux, Thaddeus S.
Dingman, Romie, Corp.
Eddy, Ehvin L., Sergt.
Fowlston, William G, Corp.
Gillard, John B., Corp.
Kelly, Tames H.

Lannon. Philip.
McDonongh, Peter J.
Montague, Myron G, Corp.
Riordan. James T., Corp.
Tearney, Thomas J., First Serg't.
Thornton. Clarence E.
Tuke, Reinold H.
Willett, Walter F.

Of these men, Trolle enlisted from Darien ; Lyon, Odell, Protheroe,
Shimmins. Smith, Southwick. Wolf, Wrigglesworth, from Delavan ; Conck-
lin, DeProux, Eddy, Gillard, Kelly, McDonongh. Riordan, Tearney, Thorn-
ton. Tuke, Willett, from East Troy; Fowlston, Huntress, Lannon, from Elk-
horn ; Cooley, Whaley, from Heart Prairie ; Brunet from Lake Geneva ; In-
galls, from Linn; Ames, from Springfield; Derthick. from Spring Prairie;
Burns, Dingman. Montague, from Troy Center. Sergeant Tearney had
served in Company F, Fifteenth I'nited States Infantry, and Troop D,
Seventh United States Cavalry, five years in all. He was mustered out as a
quartermaster sergeant. All the other men were credited to Whitewater,
forty-nine, including officers.

One more service humbly but honorably useful, in behalf of law and or-
der, was performed by young men of Delavan and Whitewater in [886, when
rioting at Milwaukee called thither Governor Rusk and several companies of
the National Guard. Our boys were not assigned to Major Traeumer's firing
line at Bayview, but threats t" property in other parts of the city compelled
some days of guard duty, and the promptly-arriving Walworthians served
faithfully wherever they were placed.

CHAPTER XIII.

NOTEWORTHY INSTITUTIONS.

Three noteworthy institutions of wider than local interest are in the
county, but neither founded nor sustained by the county or its citizens, namely :
The Yerkes observatory, the State School for the Deaf and a State Normal
School. The first is one of about two hundred and thirty observatories named,
with their latitudes and longitudes, in each year's American Ephemeris and
Nautical Almanac, and situated in nearly all the countries of the habitable
or endurable earth. The second ranks among the highest in the states. The
third is the second in order of establishment of eight such schools in the
state.

YERKES OBSERVATORY.

A far-western institution of learning had ordered from Mantois, of Paris,
two 42-inch glass disks to be combined and finished as an object glass by Alvan
Clark & Sons, Cambridgeport. Mass., but found itself unable to go further
in constructing and mounting a telescope. George E. Hale, of Kenwood
Observatory (privately equipped), and the late President Harper, of the
University of Chicago, thus found opportunity to buy these faultless disks
and with them to build and mount the most powerful refracting telescope
in the world. The means were soon supplied through the liberality of the late
Charles T. Yerkes, and in [892 contracts were made with the Clarks for finish-
ing the lenses and with a Cleveland firm for the mounting of this "Dread-
naught" of immeasurable space. The planning and general direct). hi of the
work, as to buildings and instruments, was committed to Mr. Hale. From more
than twenty places were offers of land for the purpose in hand. It was found
requisite that the site chosen should be within one hundred miles of Chicago
and readily accessible from city and university; that it should be sufficiently re-
mote from the dust, smoke, glare of street lights, and jar of cities, and not too
near the paths of earth-shaking freight trains. Too close neighborhood of
many dwellings was also to be avoided. These conditions seemed best ful-
filled b\ thai part of section 1. town of Walworth, which looks southwardly
across the western end ni Geneva Lake. \ tract of fifty-three acres was
given b) John Johnston, Jr., lying in the southwest quarter of the section.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 159

In 1907 this area was increased to nearly seventy acres, which includes a part
of the narrow strip of section 12 which lies between section 1 and the water's
edge. The lake frontage is six hundred feet long, and a pier for steamers has
been built there. The lake, at this end, is about one and a half miles wide,
covering most of section 12 and about half of section 13, and the view from
the observatory to the opposite shore is not in any way likely to become less
fair or more shut in. The observatory stands within easy distance from the
highway, one mile westward from Williams Bay, and from the highway
leading southward to Fontana, about two miles away. By way of Fontana
and Harvard to Chicago it is seventy-six miles. By way of Williams Bay
and Lake Geneva it is about ninety-three miles. It is nearly equidistant from
Lake Geneva, Delavan and Elkhorn, and its dome can be seen from the south-
western quarter of the last-named city. Its latitude is 420 34' 12.64"; its
longitude 5I1. 54 m. 13.64 sec. or 88° ^y 18.6" from Greenwich observatory.
The site of the building is one thousand and fifty feet above sea level and
about one hundred and ninety feet above the level of Geneva Lake.

Mr. Hale visited the greater observatories of both hemispheres before
determining his own plans and derived some especially useful suggestions
from the buildings and equipments at Mount Hamilton and at Potsdam,
Prussia. The form of the building is cross-shaped, with head to eastward,
its longer dimension three hundred and twenty-six feet, ending, westward,
in the great dome, ninety-two feet in diameter. The centers of the smaller
domes, at the arm-ends, are one hundred and forty-four feet apart. The
style is described as Romanesque. The outer walls are of brown Roman
brick and terra cotta. The equipment is adapted to a wide range of astro-
physical work, perhaps the whole range of astronomical investigation. Be-
sides the great telescope of forty-inch aperture, there is one of twenty-four
inch and one of twelve-inch aperture; there is, apparently, a full furnishing
of apparatus for photographic, spectroscopic, spectroheliographic and what-
ever other processes men of this century may use for their prying into the
visible and invisible contents of "nature's infinite book of secrecy." The
cost of ground, buildings and apparatus is estimated at four hundred thou-
sand dollars.

The first successful measurements of star heat were made at this insti-
tution in the summers of 1898 and T900, and a long and valuable record
is already made of photographic observations of sun and stars. Results of
these and other investigations are published in bonk form and as contributions
to scientific journals. Among these publications arc "The Study of Stellar
Evolution," bv Prof. Hale: "Researches in Stellar Photometry," bv Prof.

l6o WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Parkhurst; "The Rotation Period of the Sun," by Profs. Hale and Fox; and
two volumes entitled "Publications of the Yerkes Observatory"; Vol. I,
pp. 296, "A General Catalogue of One Thousand Two Hundred and Ninety
Double Stars Discovered from 1S71 to 1890," by Prof. Burnham; Vol. 2,
pp. 413, papers by Profs. Barnard, Burnham, Frost, Hale, Parkhurst and
others. The observatory contains more than three thousand volumes and
about the same number of pamphlets, and receives eighty scientific magazines
and journals.

No time is found available for permitting visitors to look through the
telescopes, but two or three hours are given each Saturday to visitors for
seeing, under the instruction of a staff member, the instruments and their
working. Each year several thousand visitors are received and go away
wondering. The observatory staff is composed of the following named
persons :

Edwin B. Frost, professor of astrophysics and director.

Sherburne \Y. Burnham, professor of practical astronomy.

Edward E. Barnan 1. professor of practical astronomy.

John A. Parkhurst. instructor in practical astronomy.

Storrs B. Barrett, secretary and librarian.

Philip Fox, instructor in astrophysics.

Oliver J. Lee, computer.

Mary R. Calvert, computer.

Mary F. Wentworth, stenographer!

Frank R. Sullivan, engineer in charge of forty-inch telescope.

Oscar E. Romare, instrument maker.

Henry J. Foote, carpenter.

Wilfred Beguelin, lantern slides.

Diedrich J. Oetjen, day engineer.

Louis F. Clay, night engineer.

Astronomers from other institutions often pass the summer there, as
volunteer assistants in research.

STATE SCHOOL FOB 'I'll E DEAF.

In [843 Increase V Lapham, of Milwaukee, whose various services to
science are not yel ungratefull) forgotten, wrote to Moses McCure Strong,
then president of the Territorial Council, asking him to lay before that body
for its consideration and favorable action a draft of resolutions which, in
effect, petitioned Congress for an appropriation of public land in aid of in-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. l6l

stitutions for the instruction of deaf and blind children, and for the care of
the insane. The Legislature duly memorialized Congress, but w ithout result.
Ebenezer Chesebro, an early settler of the town of Darien, had a daugh-
ter who was born deaf and thus "wisdom at one entrance quite shut out."
Ariadne had received some instruction at a New York school for the deaf.
Her father, in 1850, induced Miss Wealthy Hawes, then of Magnolia, in Rock
county, to come to his house and continue the girl's education. A neighbor's
son, James A. Dudley, then aged twelve years, found here, for him, a golden
opportunity. These two continued their study, the next year, under John A.
Mills, a graduate of the Xew York institution. Four years later these two
pioneer teachers became man and wife, and both were employed at the state
school, he as teacher, she as assistant matron. The little class at Mr. Chese-
bro's house increased to eight pupils, but was soon suspended for want of
funds. The six later pupils were Clarissa B. Kingman, of Darien. Washing-
ton Farrer. of Summerville, Rock county, with Abraham, Betsey, Charles
and Helen Hewes, of Eagle. Mr. Chesebro's feeling was too deep and strong
and his mind too beneficently active to let the school drop and become one
more matter fi ir sterile regret. About one hundred citizens of the county
joined him in a petition to the Legislature of 1852 for the establishment of
at least one school in Wisconsin for instruction of deaf children. Thanks to
the merit of the proposition in itself and to Assemblyman Barlow's effective
presentation of its justice and expediency. Governor Farwell's signature,
April 19, 1S52, made the bill to incorporate the Wisconsin Institute for the
Education of the Deaf and Dumb a law. The site was to be at or near the
village of Delavan. Nine trustees were appointed, one-third of the board re-
newable each year. This number was reduced about 1870 to five, and in
1881 the board was abolished, its functions having been transferred to the
state board of supervision. This body succeeded the older board of state
charities and reform and is now known as the slate board of control. For ;i
few years the trustees were chosen from the county; but, with increase of the
school's importance to the state came representation of other parts <>\ the
State. The trustees resident of the comity were:

William Cheney Allen Delavan 1852-62, 63-7]

James Aram Delavan 1872-75

Joseph Baker Sharon '857-58

Alanson Hamilton Barnes Delavan 1861-73

Chauncey Betts Delavan 1854-65

(11)

1 62

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Dr. Orrin Willard Blanchard Delavar 1854-

Ebenezer Chesebro Darien 1852-

Edward P. Conrick Delavan 1858-

Nicholas Montgomery Harrington .... Delavan 1854-

Dr. Henderson Hunt Delavan 1852-

William W'illard Isham Delavan 1857-69, jy

Saniuel Rees LaBar Delavan 1876-

Rev. Phipps Waldo Lake '. . .Walworth 1852-

Hollis Latham Elkhorn 1858-

Chester Deming Long Darien 1860-

Dr. Thomas M. Martin Delavan 1862-

James Alexander Maxwell Walworth 1852-

Dr. Clarkson Miller Lake Geneva 1858-

Dr. Jesse Carr Mills Elkhorn 1852-

Joseph D. Monell, Jr Delavan 1854-

Timothy Mower East Troy 1858-

Franklin Kelsey Phoenix Delavan 1852-

Albert Salisbury Whitewater 1880-

Wyman Spooner Elkhorn 1852-

Salmon Thomas Darien *853-

< id irge G. Williams Whitewater 1852

57
54
61
70
?8

7"
81

56
81
72

65
54
61

56
58
63
•54

S3
S8
54

NON-RESIDENT TRUSTEES.

\\ inchell I '. Bacon Waukesha 1

Henry L. Blood Appleton 1

Rev. Aaron L. Chapin Beloit ( College) 1

1 Histin G. Cheever Clinti >n 1

Samuel Collins Yorkville 1

Martin Field Mukwonago 1

Joseph Hamilton Milwaukee 1

Edward D. Holton Milwaukee 1

I [arrison Reed ( )slil«>sh 1

\ II uri Salisbury Whitewater 1

Moses McCure Strong Mineral Point 1

John I-'.. Thomas Sheboygan Falls 1

Mi J. I'.. Whiting lanesville t

869-72
868-78
870-76
875-81
859-60
859-62

875-78
879-81
856-58
879 8]
856-58

^74-77
869-72

Some of these trustees of the county and <>i the state at large, at their
! visits, found more or less personal interest in the pupils, making

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 1 63

them feel that the state, while performing its duty in instructing them, had
also parental care for each one's comfort and happiness. President Chapin
addressed them in their signs, wisely and profitably, and left them with a
truer understanding of their relations with that larger world from which
they had seemed so harshly cut off.

The state's appropriations in 1852 were one thousand dollars for build-
ing and five hundred dollars for a year's conduct of the school. Dr. Joseph
R. Bradway, of Delavan, was appointed principal and John A. Mills teacher.
Franklin K. Phoenix, the only son of the founder of Delavan, himself a
youthful pioneer, gave nearly twelve acres of the highland beyond the outlet
of Delavan Lake, now the west end of the city, lying north of the Tanesville
road, an extension of Walworth avenue. About twenty-three acres were
bought a few years later. The first building was of brick, two stories high,
and was part of a larger plan. It gave room for thirty-five pupils. When
finished, in 1857, the main building was of three stories, its cost about thirty
thousand dollars. To this a sufficient workshop and a barn were added at
some further cost. On the morning of September 16, 1879, tne main build-
ing was burned to the ground. For several months thereafter temporary
quarters for the children were found in the remaining buildings and in one of
the churches of Delavan. A change of site was proposed and urged by a
few newspapers at Milwaukee and elsewhere — each as in duty and honor
bound preferring its own city as the heaven-appointed though thus far man-
neglected home for the wards of the state. There was probably but one judg-
ment or feeling among the men and women of Walworth and this was
promptly and fairly well expressed two days after the fire by the newspaper
at F.lkhom in the following editorial comment :

"It is believed and hoped that the location of the school will not be changed
from Delavan. but that the new building will be located on the site of the old
one. The school has passed through many ordeals, recently, but it was pros-
perous in a high degree when this calamity came upon it, and it is hoped that
every citizen of Walworth county will feel an anxiety to have it re-established
on its old foundations and under present management."

At the legislative session of 1880 Assemblyman Barnes (a well-chosen
member for the task in hand) looked effectively to the greater good of the in-
stitute and to the smaller interest of Delavan, and the sum of seventy thou-
sand dollars was appropriated for re-building. Thus, one more phoenix
arose from its own ashes with youth and vigor renewed. (Had the institute
been burned and re-built otherwhere than at Delavan the cruelly over-worked
Arabian bird need not have done service here.) Besides the administration

164 WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN'.

(main) building, a school house, chapel, dining hall and dormitory were pro-
vided for the growing needs. The establishment is sufficient for the full
care of two hundred and fifty pupils. The yearly expense is from fifty thou-
sand to sixty thousand dollars. The total expense since 1852 has been about
two million one hundred thousand dollars.

A statute of 1858 required payment of seventy-five dollars for each pupil,
but it so operated to restrict materially the usefulness of the school that it was
soon repealed. A similar ill-advised statute was enacted in 1867, and this,
too, was soon repealed. The Civil war seriously affected legislative liberality,
and the teachers were the most direct sufferers. In June, 1861, a class of
five pupils was graduated with the full formalities or ceremonies of such oc-
casions at other institutions. Miss Emily Eddy, the first woman employed
as teacher, in 1868 began her experiments in speech-teaching. As. early as
1861 she had observed some, to her, suggestive facts as to pupils
who, from disease or accident, had become deaf, and she patiently and in-
geniously evolved methods of her own by which to teach these children to
speak with their lips and to hear with their eyes. In 1868 Miss Harriet
B. Rogers, a teacher of this art in a Massachusetts institution, visited the
school at Delavan. From her Miss Eddy received that summer a short couse
of instruction by which she so profited that hundreds of pupils have since
found reason to remember these two women with more than common grati-
tude. At a later time Miss Eddy brought some improvement of teacher-
method from the institution at Jacksonville, Illinois. It is said that Wiscon-
sin and Illinois were earliest of the states of the old Northwest to adopt this
branch of mute-instruction.

The school year of forty weeks begins the first Wednesday of Sep-
tember T11 the usual instruction in writing, reading, composition, arithmetic,
geography, natural science and drawing. with oral speech ami
lip-reading to semi-mutes and capable congenita] mutes, is added manual
training. Cabinet making began in i860, shoe-making in 1867, printing in
[878 ami baking in 1 SS 1 . Girls are also taught housekeeping, baking ami
sewing, U>ou1 [879 began the publication of the Deaf-Mute Press, a home
organ of the teachers and pupils. About [882 it- name was changed to
Deaf-Mute Times, ami aboul [896 il became the Wisconsin Titties. Its edi-
torial work has always been from fair In excellent, and it- mechanical appear-
ance creditable to foreman and printers. In [906 Prof. Warren Robinson
took a bolder step, and put forth the American Industrial Journal, an illus-
trated : 1 year magazine, "in the interesl of the industrial depart-
ments "i schools For the deaf ami the deaf themselves throughout the world."

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 1 65

This is said to be the only such publication in the world. Its number for De-
cember, 1910, indicates its temporary, if not permanent discontinuance for
want of sufficient support. The editor, who speaks, but does not hear, has
acquired a mastery of the art of expression in pure, plain English words
and clearly- formed sentences, seldom met in modern newspaper work, and
at least one of his contributors has profited similarly from judicious teaching.

Miss Anna Johnson, a blind mute (one of three at this school), now
about twenty- four years old, tells in simple, faultless phrases some of the in-
cidents of her silent, darkened life. The short story is interesting and suf-
ficiently moving, though in nowise an appeal for sympathy, and its style is
for its purpose admirable. A school which does such work as this well de-
serves the state's, support and encouragement, even if its opportunities for
such work were still less frequent. Miss Johnson's case is not that of Laura
Bridgman. nor of Helen Keller, since she lost her sight at twelve and her
hearing at fourteen. "For three years I lived in darkness and it was very
much like a prison; for no one seemed to recognize me, and as I could not
see or hear enough to help myself, everything around me was silent." In
19x14 she was sent to the school at Delavan, but sickness so far interrupted
that but four years have been profitable for instruction. She had learned at
home to sew and knit, and has since learned to use the Braille writer ( for
the use of blind persons), and now finds it easy to use the Remington and
other typewriters, and also the Singer sewing machine, with its various at-
tachments— threading her needles and regulating her work with ease. She
has read many books for the blind, but most enjoys the "Life of Helen Kel-
ler." A few of her own words may show this young woman'- unconquer-
able spirit :

"To be deprived of sight and hearing is not so great a misfortune to
those who are so afflicted as it may seem. A blind-deal" person can be just as
happy as one who has his perfect sight and hearing. No one can im-

agine how happy I have been since 1 learned to sew. I can sit alone in the
dark or light with my sewing and be as happy as any queen. Low many
happy thoughts 1 have now when 1 am making something for a friend or for
my sisters or mother. * * * When I can be among the flowers and Irees
1 am perfectly happy. * There is always something which can

amuse a blind-deaf person and add much to make his life like that of a
person with sight," — and more in like cheer) strain.

The average attendance at the school is now aboul two hundred pupils.
The whole number, since t*5_\ is about eighteen hundred. Until r88o the
head of the school was designated as the principal. Since that year he is

l66 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

known as superintendent. The following official list shows several long
periods of service there.

PRINCIPALS.

Dr. Joseph R. Bradway 1852- 3 Dr. Henry W. Milligan... 1865-68

Rev. Lucius Foote 1853- 4 Edward Collins Stone.... 1868-71

Horatio Nelson Hubbell (acting) 1854 George Ludington Weed. . 1871-75

Louis Henry Jenkins 1854-6 William Henry DeMotte. . 1875-80

John Scott Officer 1856-65

SUPERINTENDENTS.

John W. Swiler 1880 Elmer Warren Walker 1903

.Charles P. Cary 1901

No subordinate at this school may hope to reach its superintendency.
Time has shown the usefulness of this limit to promotion. But from its
teachers have been drawn chief officers for similar schools of other states.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

The board of regents in May, 1866. chose a site at Whitewater for the
second of the state normal schools, this, after having exacted from the vil-
lage a bonus of twenty-five thousand dollars. Two members of the building
committee were Newton M. Littlejohn and Samuel A. White, the first then
a state senator and the other a regent. The school was opened and dedicated
April 21, 1868, and enlarged in 1870, 1881 and 1897. The area of its ground
is ten acres, rising eight hundred and seventy-six feet above sea level and
sixty-six feet above the ground at the railway station. It has been planted
with more than a hundred species and varieties of trees and shrubs, largely
under direction of the late President Salisbury. Thus Normal Hill, as seen
from its foot and from afar, has become as fair to look upon as a vice-regal
country seat.

This institution, one of eight such parts of the system of public instruc-
tion, has. like them, the full equipment of similar schools in other states. It
employs twenty-six teachers including those in the training schools. Its
valuable library has more than fifteen thousand volumes. Since 1870 the
school has graduated one thousand six hundred and twenty pupils, of whom
aboul ninety seven per rent, have since done teachers' work.

The men whose influence upon their fellow citizens secured this school
for their village builded no better than they knew, for they acted in the full

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. T67

light of observation, experience, sound judgment, and true public spirit, and
thus kept step in the march of American civilization. Greater benefit has thus
come to Whitewater than the profits to retail dealers and boarding-house
keepers. The whole county, too, and the adjacent towns in Jefferson and
Rock have some appreciable share in this greater gain, as many a poor man
and his child well knows.

The presidents of the school have been: Oliver Arey, 1868-77; William
F. Phelps, 1877-9; J°hn William Stearns, 1879 to January, 1885; Theron B.
Pray, January to June, 1885; Albert Salisbury, July, 1885, to his last sick-
ness and death in 191 1.

Mr. Arey died at Brooklyn, N. Y., December 13, 1907. Mr. Stearns
passed to a chair in the State University, that of theory and art of teaching.

Albert Salisbury was born at Lima, Rock county, January 24, 1843;
died at Milwaukee June 2. 1911. His early life throws some light on his
later career. He was bred to farm work ; served in war time in a regiment
that never rested; finished his college course at Milton in 1870; conducted
* teachers' institutes from 1873 ; superintended and inspected schools in the
Cotton states, for the American Missionary Association from 1882; and be-
gan his presidency at Whitewater in 1885. All that he was by natural en-
dowment and by acquisition, the total sum of which was enough to warrant
at least a moderately high-aiming ambition, he gave wholly to the plain duty
before him. Most of the graduates of Whitewater passed under his master-
ship and guidance, and to most of them those brief years were the most profit-
bearing of their lives. He had much of that collateral know ledge which gives
its own value to every man's work, but he cared more to know a few things
and understand them thoroughly and comprehensively. He could admire a
superficially brilliant man without envying him. In or out of school, honest
endeavor and modest worth were unlikely to escape his notice and surely en-
listed his sympathy. He took ground early, with tongue and pen, for free
text books for township high schools, for free carriage of pupils to and from
their district schools, for everything that in theory was desirable and by
wisely considered and carefully conducted experiment had been shown else-
where practical and beneficial. His feeling was deeply moved in behalf of
children whom poverty deprives of their share in public instruction, and he
talked often and well of the state's duty to see that their right be not taken
from them without their fault. To have known him as a friend was a goodly
thing and is now a pleasant memory. To have known him as a teacher was
great good fortune. He helped to make histor) for the county, lie has be-
come rightly a part of tin- county's history..

l68 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

MILITARY ACADEMY.

A fourth institution, of great importance to American parents and sons,
but not of Walworth's creation or maintenance, is likely to come within a
year or two. It is proposed to transfer the Northwestern Military Academy
from Highland Park, Illinois, to the shore of Geneva lake, at the place long
known as Kaye's Park, in the town of Linn. The managers have secured the
option of buying forty acres of land, having one thousand feet of lake front-
age. This situation is very convenient for such instruction in naval exercises
as is useful for soldiers; and, if found expedient, for a department of the
more general naval instruction. The Legislature of 1911, by appropriate en-
actment, authorized prohibition of the sale of intoxicant beverages within a
circle of five miles radius, measured from this site as its center.

The object of this institution is not only to train citizen-soldiers, but also
to form Christian character and develop manliness ; and to such ends the
discipline and instruction are directed. Major R. Davidson, commandant,
with his officers and one hundred or more of his pupils, came to this place on'
Memorial Sunday, 191 1. He had invited attendance from all the neighbor-
ing posts of the Grand Army of the Republic to take part in the program
of prayer, band music, singing and speaking, and be gave these survivors of
a half century the place of honor in the order of marching. Colonel Jerome
A. Watrous, a soldier of two wars, and Major Davidson explained the gen-
eral purpose of the school, and the cadets closed the day, at retreat call, with
a few evolutions on the parade ground. All this will become familiar here
for the needful work of building is (in 1012) about to begin.

CHAPTER XIV.

WALWORTH COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Within less than fifteen years after the end of the Pottawattomie occu-
pation, a few men of mind and will and of some weight in the affairs of their
towns, mainly farmers of the Troys and adjoining towns, combined to form,
or develop, a county agricultural society, and thence a yearly county fair.
Most of these men lived long enough — and worked as long as they lived — to
see the infant enterprise of 1850 move in orderly progress, without halt or
backward step, to the foremost place among similar societies of the state. Of
these men the names of Homer and Seymour Brooks, Jacob and William Bur-
git, Simon Buel Edwards and Emery Thayer, of East Troy; John Fearnley,
Albon Mann Pern,- and Augustus Smith, of Troy; Sherman Morgan Rock-
wood, Jesse Pike West and Stephen Gano West, Sr., of Lafavette; Perry
Green Harrington, of Sugar Creek, and Edward Elderkin, of Elkhorn, are
preserved. No other record is found of work done previous to the fair and
cattle show opened at East Troy October 16, 1850. The day was showery,
but the attendance was encouraging. The plowing matches were postponed
to the 25th. Thirty-five first premiums, seventeen second premiums, and
three third premiums were awarded. Of these, nineteen first premiums went
to citizens of East Troy : William Bates, James Booker, Tosiah F. Brooks
(3). Homer Brooks (2), Jacob Burgit, S. Buel Edwards, Charles Hillard,
Cephas Hurlburt, Mrs. John A. Larkin, S. McNair. Michael O'Regan, Joel
Pond, Elijah Pound. Walter A. Taylor. Emery Thayer (2). To men of
Troy, five first premiums ; Hiram Brew ster, William Lumb, John J. ( >lds. I'aris
Pettit, Augustus Smith. Other first premiums were awarded to Franklin
Kelsey Phoenix, of Delavan ; Charles W. Smedley, of Hudson ; William
Child, of Lafayette: James Lauderdale, of Lagrange. Mr. Phoenix displayed
twenty-five varieties of apples and a noteworthy entry- of garden stuff.
Josiah F. Brooks sold two bulls, brought from New York, one at two hundred
and ten dollars, the other at one hundred and fifty dollars.

The officers of this fair were Augustus Smith, president, and Seymour
Brooks, secretary. Before dispersing, the members chose officers and man-
agers for the coming year. In April, 185 1, a meeting was held at Elkhorn,
and the whole county was brought explicitly within range of the society's

IJO WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

activities. A premium list was made, and the fair appointed at Elkhorn,
October 14th and 15th. The society met in the evening of the 15th for
adoption of a constitution and election of officers and three managers, all to
act as an executive committee. Article eight, of the constitution, fixed the
place of holding the fair at Elkhorn. But in 1853 it was held at Delavan.
Article nine prescribed the fast evening of each fair as the time for electing
officers. In 1852 the number of managers became five.

August 19. 1853, Samuel Pratt resigned as manager and Colonel Elder-
kin was chosen in Ins stead. Mr. Hollinshead moved, and it was ordered, to
hold the fair at Delavan, Sepi ember 23d and 24th. A committee of arrange-
ments for this purpose was appointed, all of Delavan town and villager
Aaron H. Taggart, Ira P. Larnard, Charles T. Smith, William Hollinshead,
Jonathan Williams, Cyrus Brainard. David Williams was made marshal,
with Dr. Norman L. Gaston and Nicholas M. Harrington as assistants. Sep-
tember 23d, election of officers. Ordered that executive committee procure
one or more competent persons to address the people on one of the fair days.

September 2j, 1855, the constitution was so amended as to require nine
managers, besides the four principal officers. September 11, 1856, Hon.
James R. Doolittle, of Racine, delivered the annual address.

September 25, 1857, the members of the society met in accordance with
article nine, of its constitution, and passed the following resolution : "That
the election of officers of this society be postponed till the first Wednesday in
January, 1858, and at that time said election shall be held in the court house
at Elkhorn."

January 6, 1858, Treasurer Hodges reported as the receipts of the fair
of 1X57 the sum of eight hundred thirty-nine dollars and fifty-five cents. The
amount on hand after paying premiums was two hundred and fifty-seven
dollars. Land had been bought of Colonel Elderkin in 1855 for a permanent
fair ground on a time contract running ten years, with interest at ten per
cent. This meeting ordered payment of two hundred and fifty dollars on this
contract. Colonel Elderkin was directed to go to Madison to collect for the
society the state's yearly appropriation of one hundred dollars in aid of
count) fairs, then amounting to two hundred dollars. If allowed and paid,
the sum \va> to he applied to payment for land- If nut collected, he was to
draw a suitable memorial, asking the Legislature fur relief. Wyman
Spooner, Horatio S. Winsor and Edward Elderkin were appointed to examine
: titution and records to find if the societj was so organized as to enable
n 1- hold real estate, ami they were directed to reporl at the nexl meeting.
Mr. Elderkin, then one ol the secretaries, was ordered to l>u\ a record hook

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. I7I

and transcribe therein the constitution, by-laws, and the whole record of the
society's proceedings. The acts of the annual meetings of the society and of
its several executive committees for sixty years, as recorded, have not yet
filled the book thus begun by Colonel Elderkin, though it is not an unusually
large one of its kind. Its contents hardly present more than a fairly traceable
outline of the society's history and rate of growth.

This is in part explained by the fact that in this, as in many organiza-
tions for other purposes, it has been found convenient to add many executive
functions to the secretary's duty as a recorder of proceedings in session of
society and committee. For many years following 1865 this so variously
useful officer has seemed to persons outside of the management to combine
in himself the executive, legislative and judicial power of the society. The
later creation of minor superintendencies has not made the secretary's duties
much less diversified. For many years the officers were paid little or nothing
above their expenses. The secretary now receives $400, the treasurer $250,
the president $100 (by act of the session of 191 1). the superintendent of
privileges $75, the marshal $40. Members of executive committee are paid
for one day's service, two dollars each. The working force, other than those
just mentioned, at the last fair was 160 persons: Under the superintendent
of the ground, 12; police, 29: treasurer's office, 18; secretary's office, 8; at
gates and amphitheater, 23; in floral hall, 22; in speed' department, 14: judges
for premium awards, 34. Their total pay, $1,355.71. Since the fair of
1909 there was paid to laborers and repairers employed in care of the ground,
in the course of one year, $629.10; for permanent improvements, $77^-37;
for insurance, $233'.75- The total receipt for 1910 was $19,147.73, of which
sum $293.79 was ^e balance on hand from 1909, and $2,200 was received
from the state treasury pursuant to provisions of statute in aid of county
fairs. In January, 191 1, the unpaid liabilities amounted to $65.62. These
paid, and the state's aid received (usually in February), the society sets out
for the year with $3,404.40. The sum of trotting purses paid was $4,760;
sum of premiums paid, $4,072.75.

The fair of 185 1 was held along Church street, south of the park, south-
western part of the village. One or more fairs were held on the park, [n
1855 the society began to buy land for a permanent fair ground. The place
chosen was (and is) well within the village limits, in one of the Elderkin
additions, a few rods from the point at which the Spring Prairie road meets
Court street. The certainty that the railway, then building from Racine to-
ward Sunset, would reach Elkhorn within the next year had some el'lVd on
Colonel Blderkin's mind as to the coming values of village real estate though

172 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

he stopped a little short of extravagance in his valuation of the six acres sold
to the society. He let it go at one hundred dollars per acre, giving ten years
for payment, and accepting ten per cent interest. The society now owns and
occupies a fraction more than thirty-nine acres. About fifty or sixty rods
further northeastward the branch railway to Eagle, curving along the eastern
side of the ground, crosses the highway at an acute angle. It seems the so-
ciety's manifest destiny to acquire this triangular space — about six and one-
half acres — within a few months or years. By two extensions southward the
old village cemetery, having been vacated by special statute, was added, giving
a Court street frontage of twenty-two rods. A few groups of second-growth
oaks and other trees give a parklike effect to this part of the ground, and a
few lawn seats make it at present an attractive resting place for tired visitors.

During the four days of the fair the railway supplies special trains, and
the attendance, gathering from distant counties of Wisconsin and Illinois,
has been computed variously at from twenty thousand to thirty thousand.
When the fair week falls in dry weather, as it usually does, the dust-laden
air along the several highways of the county, to one who has seen this sign
of great armies in motion, is a reminder of the summer campaigns of the
Civil war. For most of the morning hours the procession of vehicles headed
for the white city inclines one to wonder if anybody stays at home in this
holiday week.

In [879 Henry G. Hollister. vice-president for the previous year, was
chosen president of the society, and, thereafter, with two exceptions, such
order of succession lias been the usage. The vice-presidents thus declining
< >r passed over were Benjamin T. Fowler in [884 and Hiram S. Bell in 1894.
Ebenezer Davidson has, since 1879. twice reached the presidency by way of
the present order of promotion.

PRESIDENTS.

Aldrich. William II.. Spring Prairie , 1900

\llrn, Dwighl Sidney, Linn 1888

Allen, George R., Bloomfield 1885

Allyn, Alexander H.. Delavan 1886

Babcock, Walter E., Spring Prairie 1909

Blakely, William, Darien 1884

Brewster, John M.. Troy 1896

Briggs, Merman A.. Delavan 1891

Brooks. Seymour. Eas1 Troy , 1861

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. I73

Buell. Sidney, Linn

Clough, Darwin P., Darien

Cross, Hiram, Lagrange _

♦Davidson, Ebenezer, Lake Geneva !893>

Downs, Lemuel, Delavan

Dunlap, Charles. Geneva 1869,

Dunlap, William Penn. Geneva

Edgerton, Stephen R., Lafayette

Edwards, Simon Buell, East Troy

Flack, David Lytle, Geneva

Foster, Asa, Sugar Creek

Fulton, John L, Whitewater

Gibbs, Charles R, Whitewater

Grier. James M., Bloomfield

Grier, Thomas H., Bloomfield

*Hare, Ambrose B., Richmond

Harrington. Perry Green, Sugar Creek 1871,

Hollinshead. William. Delavan 1863, 1864,

Hollister, Henry George, Delavan

Jeffers, John, Sharon

Johnson, John B., Darien

*Knilans, Williarn Allen, Richmond

Lawson. Frank E., Walworth

Lean. Robert J., Lagrange

Manor, Newell B.. Bloomfield

Martin, Charles, Spring Prairie

"Meadows. John Greenwood, Lyons

Meadows. William, Lyons

Mills, Dr. Jesse Carr, Lafayette

Morse, Frederick A., Whitewater

Mulaney, Charles A., East Troy

Nichols, Levi A., Linn

Pratt. Orris, Spring Prairie

Preston. Otis, Elkhorn 1855, '58-'6o,

Reynolds, James E.. Troy

tnour, Robert Thompson. Lafayette

Smith, Augustus, Troy

Starin, Henry J., Whitewater

Stewart, William H.. Richmond

878
905
854
191
897
870

903
887
874

8/3
877
907

NN< ,
890
904
910
872

81 15

879
876

898
882
908
892
902

875
895
89]

853
899
906
90T
883

'62

S.X.,

850
852

894

174 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Wales. Charles, Geneva 1867, 1868

Williams. David, Geneva !85i

Wiswell, Charles Harriman, Sugar Creek 1912

*Wylie, George Washington, Lafayette 1866

VICE-PRESIDENTS.

Bell, Hiram Sears, Walworth

Brooks, Seymour, East Troy

Buell, Sidney, Linn

Cheney, Rufus Jr., Whitewater ^859

Derthick, Walter George, Lafayette

Edwards, Simon Buel, East Troy 1854, '55, '57

Flack, David Lytle. Geneva

Fowler, Benjamin T.. Lagrange

Harriman, Rufus Dudley, Lafayette

Hendri.x. Wellington, Lafayette

Hill, Thomas Worden, Lyons 1867,

Hollinshead, William, Delavan 1852.

*Hollister, Uriah Schutt, Darien

Martin, Charles. Spring Prairie 1870.

Morrison. William Henry, Troy

Potter, Robert Knight, Lafayette

Smith. Augustus, Troy

Starin, Henry J., Whitewater

Voss, John Augustus

Wales, Charles, Geneva 1863, 1864

Williams, John. Darien

Wiswell, Charles Harriman, Sugar Creek

*Wylie, George Washington, Lafayette

SECRETARIES.

894
856

866
860
877

'73
871
884

875
869
868
862

874
872

876
850
851 •

855
912

865

853
qn
861

Brooks, Seymour, East Troy 1850, 185 1

Elderkin, Edward, Elkhorn 1850, '51, '54-'65

Williams. David, Geneva : 1852

Latham, llollis, Elkhorn i852-*54, '56, '6i-'68

Golder, Peter, Elkhorn 1853

Win- ir, Horatio Sales, Elkhorn 18^5

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 1 75

Carpenter, Seth L., Elkhorn 1858

Frost, Eli Kimball, Sugar Creek ^59

Martin, Charles, Spring Prairie i860

West. Stephen Gano, Elkhorn 1869-1878

Morrison, William Henry, Troy 1878-1884

♦Alien, Levi E., Elkhorn (from Sharon) 1885-1890

*Stratton. William James, Elkhorn 1891, 1892

Mitchell, Samuel, Elkhorn 1893-1896, 1903, 1904

Harrington, George L.. Lafayette 1897-1902

Norris, Harley Cornelius. Elkhorn 1905-1908

Porter, Francis Maxwell. Elkhorn 1909-1912

Until 1866 it was usual to elect two secretaries sometimes, assigning one
to the duty of recording and the other to the division of correspondence.
After Mr. Carpenter — a young lawyer who lived a few months at Elkhorn —
Mr. Latham served as corresponding secretary- until 1866, when the two sec-
retaryships were united in one officer.

TREASURERS.

Rockwood, Sherman Morgan, Lafayette 1850

Hodges, Edwin, Elkhorn 1851, 1854, 1856-1860

Golder, Peter, Elkhorn 1 1852

Hollinshead. William, Delavan 1853

Mallory, Samuel, Elkhorn 1855

Brett. John Flavel, Elkhorn 1861-1866

Rockwell, Le Grand, Elkhorn 1867-1869

Latham, Hollis, Elkhorn 1870-1883

Lyon. Wilson David, Elkhorn 1884

Latham. Le Grand. Elkhorn 1885-1897

♦Brett. James Elverton, Lyons 1898-1911

John F. and lames E. Brett were respectively father and son, as were
also Hollis and LeGrand Latham.

Names marked with a * are of soldiers of the Civil war.

CHAPTER XV.

RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Clergymen and pious men with gift of tongue and not unused to leader-
ship in prayer meeting were among the early settlers of Delavan, Lafayette,
Spring Prairie and Walworth, and perhaps other towns, and were not long
wanting in any town. It has been learned how Colonel Phoenix came by his
military title. His religious activity was even then as manifest as his
energy in founding a city. He prayed, exhorted and preached at Delavan
and Spring Prairie and, not unlikely, at Elkhorn and other points. Mr. Dwin-
nell was nearly as early and quite as zealous in this field of labor, though he,
too, had his load of secular cares as farmer and town officer. Their fellow
pioneers, though not all of them professors of religious faith, were not gen-
erally unwilling to hear instruction and exhortation; and these preachers of
good tidings for a time carried their messages through a nearly roadless
country, crossed by many bridgeless streams, with the steadfast resolution
and, if needful, high hardihood of the pioneer clergy everywhere and always.

Churches were not an immediate need. Men and women met for relig-
ious communion in many small assemblies at the larger cabins, and when
school houses appeared these were made doubly useful. In pleasant weather
no finer temples than the oaken groves — nowhere distant nor liable to be over-
crowded— were needed for the larger gatherings. The short pioneer period,
"the first low wash of waves where soon would roll a human sea," was fol-
lowed by immigration at such increasing rate that co-operative effort was made
as available for church building as for more mundane enterprise-. After [843
(be county board authorized the sheriffs t<> lei the court bouse for Sunday use
of infant religious societies at a nominal rental rate, which was later but little
reduced by imposing onhj the cosl of heating and sweeping. Not the church-
less sects at the county seat only, but all within convenient riding or driving
di tance of the center stake might avail themselves of this liberal disposition
oi the supervisors -if such sects could agree upon a scheme of days and
hours for their several services,

Baptisl societies were funned a1 (lie villages of Delavan in iN.><). Spring
Prairie in [841, East Troy and Millard in [842, al Walworth in 1844, Past
Dela an and Geneva in 1845. From these were formed the Walworth Bap-

WALWORTH COl'NTY, WISCONSIN. 1/J

tist Association in 1846, now the oldest of the county associations, which are
constituents of the almost venerable Wisconsin Baptist convention, the first
session of which latter body was held at East Troy in July, 1846. A session of
the convention was also held at that place in 1856, and at Delavan in 1870,
1883, 1 89 1 and 1909. Increased population in the several towns soon enabled
each local society to build itself a church, aud these primitive meeting places
were most of them followed by a succession of better buildings, each showing
some advance in the means, liberality, and architectural taste of its builders.
In order of membership the Baptist churches in 1909 were Delavan, 391;
Elk-horn, 189: Walworth, 135; Lake Geneva, 100; Millard, go; East Dela-
van, 5.5; Darien, 3J ; Spring Prairie, 25. In order of value of church prop-
erty; Delavan, $35,000; Elkhorn, $21,500; Lake Geneva, $19,000; Walworth,
S4.900: Millard, $4,500; East Delavan, $4,200; Darien, $3,100; Spring Prairie,
$1,500. This denomination is the only one which has a count v association.

Of the several denominations now having society or parish organiza-
tions within the county, the Baptist, Congregationalist, Methodist and Epis-
copalian were earliest on the ground: and the first of these was and is numeri-
cally strongest. But Catholic missionaries had been long first in Wisconsin,
and among these the Fathers Lejeune, Brebeuf, LeMercier, Vimont. Lale-
mant, Raguneau, de Ouens, and Dablon, in their now invaluable "Relations,"
laid the foundations of Wisconsin history. These and other patiently heroic
men also laid the foundations of an archiepiscopal province and its three di-
oceses. It is not unlikely that Fathers Marquette and Allouez had crossed this
county and had lingered 1>\ its lakes long before Bigfoot lorded it at Fontana.

It is certain that the settlements of 1836-7 were not long unnoticed nor
neglected by the Episcopal bishop at Milwaukee, and the infant parishes at
Delavan, Elkhorn. etc.. soon knew Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper's face and voice.
Parishes were organized where and when practicable, and these have pros-
pered steadily and. in total effect, mightily. There are now large and hand-
some churches at Delavan, Elkhorn, Lake Geneva and Whitewater, and
chapels or missions at other points.

The Congregational church was planted early and has grown with the
county. Its now most active societies are at Delavan, East Troy, Elkhorn,
Geneva Junction, Lafayette. Lake Geneva and Whitewatei

A few Presbyterian societies were formed, bu1 nearly all were soon ab-
sorbed by its ancient rival, the Congregatinnal church. The Presbyterian
church at Lake Geneva had a long and generally prosperous life, bul in [883
its members voted for Congregational organization.

(12)

I78 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

The Methodists, never far or long behind the founders of new communi-
ties, sowed on fertile ground and now stand beneath a broadly sheltering tree.
They have absorbed the allied sects, which a while flourished in Walworth as
everywhere else in America. Wesleyans struggled a few years for separate
existence, and then yielded to the inevitable. The churches of this denomina-
tion show the usual increase of wealth among its members, with incidental
growth in architectural taste.

English-speaking Catholics have been for more thai, three centuries ac-
quainted with poverty as to their parishes, and too often with worse than
poverty as to themselves ; and none have shown forth better than they the
sweet usefulness of adversity. For several years Catholics of English and
other tongues were so few and so dispersed that the county seemed over-long
but a field for painful mission labor. Theirs is the good that comes from
waiting without resting, for time has been kind to them. They have emerged
from the wilderness and one looking upon their churches at Delavan. East
Troy, Elkhorn, Lake Geneva. Lyons and Whitewater might feel moved to
adapt the Davidian verse : "Pray ye for the things that are for the peace of
Jerusalem :,and abundance for them that love thee."

Seventh-day Baptists have long maintained themselves, as in a strong-
hold, at Walworth,

The Lutheran church is firmly fixed and its societies are well distributed
through the county, at Darien, East Troy, Ekhorn (two), Lake Geneva
(two), Lyons, Richmond, Sharon, Sugar Creek. Whitewater (two).

The ideas or opinions of CJniversalism have been and are yet, perhaps, as
widely held in this county as elsewhere, but its denominational activity has
thus far shown fewer results than that of some numerically smaller religious
divisions. Its adherents have sometimes made temporary alliance with L'ni-
tarianism and other forms of liberal theology. Its few churches are not always
open, nor does its printed teaching circulate among its readers as of old.

Spiritualism, or "spiritism," as scoffers have named it, traveled as 'fast as
the mails of the time From it- birthplace at the home of the Fox girls, not
Ear from the depository of Joseph Smith's golden plates. Walworth was thus
but few days behind Cattaraugus in receiving tidings from the unseen world
of the unstable bul far from unfruitful air. Intelligent and worthy men and
women were not wanting among converts, and "mediums" of various gifts
of perception and power of interpretation were at once developed, l'.elievers
met at household "seances" and met in general conventions, newspapers and
1 ks were lead and studied, and at Whitewater a temple was built. Its doc-
trines and practices are nol yel obsolete, though it has here less of the aspect
■! organized sect

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN. I79

At Joseph Smith's death a rag of his mantle was wafted to Spring
Prairie and lodged upon James Jesse Strang's shoulders, thus to endue him
with gifts of prophecy and leadership. The city and temple of Voree rose,
obedient to revelation, in 1845 and, obedient to counter revelation, was aban-
doned in 1847 to rats and weasels, and the temple rafters were suffered to fall
down on a cow. A few persons may have returned from Beaver Island in
1856, but not to restore "the fair city of Voree." A few followers of the
younger Joseph Smith came from the desolation of Nauvoo, in 1845, to the
vicinity of East Delavan, where they built a church of Latter-day Saints and
lived without offense to their neighbors. The society still exists, somewhat
dwindled in number and with less regular service at their church.

Mrs. Eddy's doctrines have pervaded rather than divided the churches of
the old Protestant orthodoxies. Her followers are not easily to be estimated as
to their number, but their influence is manifest. They are diffused through-
out the county and appear to be still increasing at some fair rate. Their prog-
ress is more like the silently powerful natural forces than like the swiftly
rushing whirlw ind or the upheaving and rending earthquake.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The liberal policy of the federal government had set apart section six-
teen of each township of the national domain as an aid to new states in the
establishment of common schools ; but, in earlier years of the county a square
mile of public land, at its best, was not a rich endowment. Some notion
may be formed of its value to the school fund from a report in 1848 of a
committee of the county board as to the condition of school, seminary and
university lands within the county. Of section 25 (a seminary section) of
Sugar Creek it was noted that the timber had been cut away unlawfully and
that the value of the land was thus reduced by one-half. But this may have
been the only instance of such spoliation of the rights of children.

Before the full organization of towns the schools received some attention
of the county commissioners. One of then firsl duties was to set off school
districts, referring boundaries to range, township and section lines. Private
enterprise had taken the first practical steps, For American matrons and
maidens could not and would not Miller the young children to lose more than
one school year in the transit from a land of schools to the late home of the
Pottawattomies. So, as volunteer teachers, they brought together their pupils
by twos and threes and sometimes sixes at some consenting neighbor's house
and at once laid bases for the better order of things about to follow ; while

l8o WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

men met, debated, resolved, amended, referred, reported, voted and after
much such like ado, acted.

Judge Gale observed that however men differed on most things of town-
ship concern, they were at one as to the instant need of schools. The com-
missioners, in 1839, appointed town school inspectors: For Darien, Nicholas
S. Comstock, Loren K. Jones, Amos Older, Lyman H. Seaver, Jacob Lee ; for
Delavan, Charles S. Bailey, Milo Kelsey, Alvin B. Parsons, Henry Phoenix,
Salmon Thomas; for Elkhorn (old town). Tared B. Cornish, George Esterly,
Volney A. McCracken, Zerah Mead, Jeduthun Spooner ; for Geneva, Charles
M. Baker, Andrew Ferguson, Charles M. Goodsell, Samuel Hall, Russell H.
Malic irv: for Spring Prairie. William Arms, Richard Chenery, Solomon A.
Dwinnell, Ansel A. Hemenway, Jesse C. Mills: for Walworth. William Bell,
Phipps W. Lake, James A. Maxwell, William Rumsey, H. Smith Young.
Better men than these, taken all together, could hardly be named for such
service in 191 r.

A meeting of school commissioners (or inspectors) and other citizens,
was held at Elkhorn, December 1. 184J, at which George Gale, Moses Bartlett,
Edward Elderkin, Solomon A. Dwinnell and Orra Martin were appointed to
draft suitable resolutions and were directed to report at an adjourned meeting,
which was to reassemble December 24th. Their work was duly submitted and
adopted :

"Resolved, That nine-tenths of American youth lay the foundation of
their education in common schools, and their after success depends on the
prosperity of these institutions.

"That a well organized system of common schools is indicative of an
intelligent and enlightened community.

"That Wisconsin should not be behind old states in the great cause of
education.

"That the following text-books are recommended: Reading, Leavitt's
Easy Lessons; Porter's Rbetorical Reader; Goodrich's First to Fourth Reader;
spelling, Webster's Elementary Spelling; geography, Peter Parley's and
Olney's; grammar, Smith's, Kirkham's; arithmetic, Adams's, new edition;
composition, Parker's Exercises.

"Thai we recommend to teachers of common schools a more general
introduction and teaching of English composition."

Ii was further resolved to call a convention of the friends of education
hi iln counties of Jefferson, MKlwaukee, Racine. Rock and Walworth, to
meet at Easl Troy, Februarj 1. r'843, "tn consider the best methods of ad-
vancing the interests of common school education in the territory." Gaylord

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. l8l

Graves presided at this convention, and Judge Gale, the secretary, says that
the proceedings were spirited, and that among resolutions adopted was one
recommending establishment "of a normal school for the education of teach-
ers." The convention adjourned to Elkhorn, third Wednesday in May fol-
lowing; but it never met again. It might seem that a few warmly interested
men of somewhat telescopic vision were permitted to think and talk for their
less imaginative but vary practical neighbors, but not to act for them in such
wise as to raise the tax rate. August 7, 1841, the return to the county com-
missioners of delinquent tax was, for schools $150.45, for roads $193.63.

Until 1805 each town chose its school superintendent. This system was
found inefficient, variable in method and operation, and behind the spirit of
the age. The count}- superintendency promised better things, but its advan-
tages did not at once follow its creation ; though enlightened men, in touch
with the State Teachers' Association and other widening and substance-giving
influences, were chosen to lead order from chaos. Public opinion or sentiment
on the subject of education is not formed by teachers alone. It has always
been favorable, as an abstract proposition, to a system of state schools; but
the advancing ideas of superintendents and teachers do not always work in-
stant conviction in the minds of taxpayers, — at least, as to special new meas-
ures proposed. These may seem in the nature of doubtful experiments, liable
to carry with them new or higher taxation, and therefore requiring looking
before leaping. The nearness of one of the normal schools has been, on the
whole, of incidental advantage in moving forward the public mind to larger
liberality of thought and action. A large percentage of the pupilage at the
Whitewater institution has been resident within the county, and many of those
graduated have taught at least a year in home districts before finding other
usefulness abroad. Thus, their parents and friends have been brought more
or less into knowledge and not seldom into sympathy with the views of leaders
in the movement toward school improvement. Able officers of the State Uni-
versity, the normal schools, the state superintendency. and the State Teach-
ers' Association have been heard as lecturers and have had their legitimate
influence. The taxpayer of this century, now better in formed and larger
minded, is often found upholding a school system unknown to his boyhood
and which he had for a time distrusted and opposed.

The fully organized high schools of four little cities and as many in-
corporated villages have contributed to this evolution of better public senti-
ment. The more forward or more fortunate youths of the district schools,
passing to and through the neighboring high school, have fairly measured
their own benefit received from this upward step and have seen more clearly

l82 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

to what practical ends the higher education may tend. The county high
schools are steady feeders of the stream of young life toward the university,
the colleges and the technical schools ; and names of young Walworthians are
found in every class list. So, in the slow march of years, the dream of the
earlier educator is in course of fulfillment, and the system of public instruc-
tion has become nearly one and indivisible. The direct and now plainly seen
result is to make the children of many races in Wisconsin homogeneous and
truly American.

CHAPTER XVI.

ROADS AXD ROAD-MAKING RAILWAYS.

The earliest of all roads were the Indian trails. Of these the most im-
portant was that from Milwaukee to Galena, passing through the northern
part of the count}' and having lateral branches from Whitewater to hurt
Atkinson and elsewhere in the Bark River country. Mr. Cravath describes
this as about fifteen inches wide and trodden in the spongier places to such
depth as more to resemble a ditch than the "highway of a nation." A trail
from Geneva lake passed by way of Lafayette and East Troy to Mukwonago
lake, and this became part of the "army trail," used by federal troops in their
marches between Fort Dearborn and the forts of the North and Northeast.
Another trail from the foot of Geneva lake led to Godfrey's at the upper
fork of the Fox, near Rochester, and thence to Racine, with a branch to
Milwaukee. But these lateral trails varied more or less in their course, and
were sometimes confusing to white travelers, so that fords were found
with difficulty or missed wholly. Generally, the Indians found the most
practicable routes from point to point, with short cuts and detours suited to
conditions of weather and soil; but their roads, so cunningly surveyed, were
not made with hands. Other trails led from lake to lake and from village or
camp to hunting, fishing, and trapping places. Some of these routes, no doubt,
gave partial direction to white men's first roads.

There was no distinct trail from Gardner's prairie to Turtle creek. Allen
Perkins, returning in July, 1836, from his new'ly-made claim near Delavan,
lost his way and was found twenty-four hours later by Colonel Phoenix — -
more -killed in the craft of woods and prairie — and guided to Gardner's.
Thereupon the settler- turned out and dragged a tree over the whole route,
so breaking down brush and weeds and scratching soft or loose earth as to
make the way plain and nearly straight. The present highway from Dela-
van to Elkhorn, and the more southerly of two mads thence to Spring Prairie,
coincide nearly with the route taken b) Colonel Phoenix.

The territorial Legislature established a few routes from the lake shore
to the valley of the Rock, — as, from Milwaukee and Racine to Janesville and
from Kenosha to Beloit; but these were in no wise king's highways for
smooth and rapid transit. The) became, in a way. trunk roads, for the

184 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

county's system of highways. To define road districts and appoint viewers
for roads ordered or authorized were among the earlier duties of the first
governing board, the county commissioners. With the soon-following or-
ganization of the several towns their supervisors, under direction of the
yearly town meetings, ordered the work of the plows and the shovels, stopping
scrupulously at town lines. If this was not a good method, it was the only
one practicable for more than sixty years.

Twenty years after the coming of Gardner, Meacham, Payne and Phoenix,
the ways in spring and fall, and in open winters, were in many if not in most
places just as bad as patient men could endure — and patient men were in the
majority. For instances, the crossings of Sugar Creek valley and that of
Duck Lake marsh were just a little better than the adjacent bogs. Perhaps,
taken together, the roads leading out of Elkhorn were the worst within the
knowledge of men. The road to Delavan was bad. The two roads into Sugar
Creek were worse. The road leading due eastward toward Spring Prairie
(Colonel Phoenix's trail) was worst. The town line roads northward and
southward were pluperfectly worst. That which passes the fair ground into
Lafayette and thence eastward was for two miles plusquamperfectly vile, and
hence not to lie described in fair terms.

Much has been told and written of privations undergone and difficulties
met and overcome by the pioneers. It may be doubted if they and their chil-
dren and grandchildren have endured anything much worse than their own
roads; for these were a long-lasting and for long a hopeless affliction to men
and their unmurmuring beasts. The men of Elkhorn and adjoining towns
were not wanting in enlightened public spirit. The}-, as other men, were ruled
by the circumstances of their time, which, neither tor Walworth nor for the
next county in any direction, were then favorable to boulevard-making.

There is gravel nearly everywhere in the county, but not everywhere of
the fittest for road making. Some fortunate towns have it at the pathmaster's
convenience, whenever he may work, while for other towns it must be hauled
at greatly multiplied cost, or. an inferior compound of clay, sand and pebbles
must be used. For tin- past twenty years the more general tendency lias been
to use the better material. For at least one-half of the year the greater part
ol the POads are lilted well out of the mud, and the fair-ground is no longer
fronted h\ a "hole of sorrow."

But tlie good thai sometimes comes to such as can wait seventy-five years
seenis now at band. The county board of 1911, at its November session,
acting under a statute of that year, elected as its first county board commis-
sioner Herman J. Peters, of the town of Sharon 1 who is a son of the super-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 1 85

visor for that town). The sum of nine thousand five hundred dollars was
appropriated for the work of 191 2. This is the sum of fifteen appropriations
made previously by as many towns, only Troy not in the list. The state
levies a like sum. which when collected is returned to the county on conditions
prescribed by statute. The towns retain the initiative, and may each do its
road-work by its own officers and citizens. The work done in any year is
limited to fifteen per cent, of the county's road mileage. To receive statutory
aid the towns must conform to the general plans of the state road commis-
sion and admit the supervision of the county's officer. If this is done, the prin-
cipal roads will become parts of a state system. In order to secure such a
result, the adjoining counties interchange plans of each year's work to be
done, so that road may meet road at the county lines.

In brief, state and county roads will have nine-foot roadbeds, of best
material locally available, well rolled, with enough margin for meeting and
passing vehicles, and will be built under competent direction. Cities and in-
corporated villages must pay state and county road taxes, but road-making
stops at their limits. Hence, these municipalities will have such streets as
they may care to make or may choose to endure.

RAILWAYS.

The Legislature of New York in 1826 incorporated the Mohawk &
Hudson Railway Company with a capital of three hundred thousand dollars.
and this might be increased to a half million. Its line was from Albany to
Schenectady, fourteen miles, and the road was built in 1830-1. In 1830 the
Canajoharie & Catskill and the Delaware & Hudson companies were incor-
porated. About this time other companies were chartered, as, the Port Byron
& Auburn, Hudson & Berkshire, Great Au Sable, Catskill & Ithaca, Salina &
Port Watson, Canandaigua & Geneva, Ithaca & Owego railways. The
counties in which lay these proposed lines supplied no small share of the first-
comers to Walworth, many of whom may have been jolted over a few miles
of straj>-rail, at ten or twelve miles an hour, through forests and swamps pri-
meval, in low-roofed compartment cars, behind locomotives of low horse-
power, and at rates not fixed by statute.

The lakes were a natural highway from Buffalo to the line of ports
placed at the mouth of rivers and creeks from Green bay to Kenosha, each
one a new Tyre; but railways were needed, and at once, by which to reach
the inland and river counties, to distribute throughout the Wisconsin paradise
a part of the rising tide of immigration. The settlements of Walworth were
scant fifteen years old when the -fast- following railway builders had reached

l86 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Chicago by two lines through Michigan and Indiana, and were looking at
farther Iowa as their own.

Men of Milwaukee were neither blind nor idle. In 1847 a railway to
Waukesha was projected and in four years it was built thus far. Money was
needed to carry this line across to the Mississippi. A change in its charter
gave it a definite western terminus at Prairie du Chien, and in 1856 the first
train ran across the narrower part of the state. The road was new-named
Milwaukee & Mississippi. It reached Whitewater in 1852 and in the same
year was built to Milton. This was nearly as soon as Chicago was reached
from Detroit and Toledo, and but thirteen years after Dr. Tripp had built
his mill. This road enters the town at section 1, turns southwesterly at the
city, and leaves by section 18.

Racine, too, had golden visions of trade diverted from the big villages of
Chicago and Milwaukee to the rising city with "the finest harbor along the
lake." In 1852 her railway investors procured a charter for the Racine, Janes-
ville & Mississippi Railway. Her own capital was insufficient, and the coun-
ties and towns along the proposed line were urged to issue bonds and their
citizens to subscribe to stock. The western terminus was not fixed definitely.
Partly, perhaps, because if built wholly in Wisconsin the line would be rather
too near the Milwaukee road's way, but probably more to secure a desirable
connection with Iowan lines south of Dubuque, the course was diverted from
Janesville to Beloit and thence through Freeport to Savannah. As at first
surveyed through this county the track would have been nearly straight from
I ,yons to Delavan. leaving Elkhorn a mile or more northward. There was no
excess of cash capital at Elkhorn, but there were poor men whose minds were
filled with dreams of nothing less than a triple-junction of long-line railways,
and from such a maze of frogs and switches and side-tracks and Y's it must
follow as surcl}- as the working of the law of gravitation that trade must
leave Chicago and all other fictitious, accidental and temporary trade centers
and huddle itsell about the court house square. One railway was building
up Whitewater like an exhalation. What three railways would do for Elk-
liorn only assessors and census enumerators could tell, after the wonderful
doing. It was easy enough for Elderkin, Preston, Smith. Spooner, Utter,
Winsor, and all the talkers of a county-seat t" persuade their hopeful fellow
citizens that private money and village bunds could net be invested in other
i\ with such certainty of quick and yearly increasing profit. Elkhom raised
twenty thousand dollars and Delavan twenty-five thousand dollars, and early
in [856 tbi' track was extended From Burlington to Delavan, with stations
also at Lyonsdale and Springfield. In the fall the work was carried through

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 187

Darien and Allen Grove to Clinton, where the Chicago & Northwestern road,
passing through Sharon village, crossed on its way to Janesville. The next
year the work was pushed about two stations beyond Beloit — Brockton and
Shi Hand. The business panic of that year checked railway building, though
in 1859 trus road reached Freeport and halted there until a change of owner-
ship, with change of name to Western Union, extended it to Savannah, and
later to Rock Island.

In 1869 the great Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul consolidation, which
already included the Western Union line, built its straight line from Chicago
to Milwaukee, making a new crossing at Western Union Junction, now named
Corliss. In 1869-70 seventeen miles of track, from Ea'gle to Elkhorn,
through the towns of Troy and Lafayette, with three intermediate stations,
connected the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien division with the Racine & South-
western division. There were men along this line who imagined that passen-
gers between Milwaukee and Rock Island would be brought by way of this
new track. But the company's policy was not so much to rearrange travel-
routes or to build up new cities of Walworth as to make it unlikely that some
other company would fulfil the old dream of a road from Milwaukee through
East Troy to Beloit. As a small part of a great railway system this branch is
not profitless, and it is of much convenience to local travelers and shippers.
Neither citizens nor towns were asked to aid this bit of railway-building.

In 1853 men of Whitewater, Elkhorn and Geneva obtained a charter
as the Wisconsin Central Railway Company. Beginning at Genoa and run-
ning diagonally through the county much curved from Geneva toward Elkhorn,
and onward in a nearly straight line to Whitewater, and thence through Jef-
ferson, Columbus and Portage, the builders would be providentially guided
to a suitable terminus at Lake Superior. Erom Genoa to Chicago its trains
would use the Galena & Chicago Union tracks. Millard and Heart Prairie
lay on this crow-flight across the county. By 1857 the line was nearly de-
termined through Stevens Point to the mouth of Montreal river. The first
president of the company was Legrand Rockwell, and the last one was Rufus
Cheney, Jr. From first to last Edwin Hodges was secretary and treasurer,
Frederick J. Starin its chief engineer, and Winsor & Smith its attorneys. It
is not now easy to find director lists or names of stockholders, bul Charles M.
Baker, of Geneva, George Bulkley and Otis Preston, of Elkhorn, Eleazar
Wakeley, of Whitewater, and perhaps John A. Pierce, of Millard, were among
the leaders. But for the day of reckoning, for business men of America, late
in 1857, this road might have been built. Much grading was done almost
continuous!] from Genoa to Whitewater, and at points beyond. The towns

l88 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

along the line had been authorized by statute to give their bonds in aid. and
most of them had done so, in amounts up to the statutory limit, which varied
between fifteen thousand and forty thousand dollars. They who could not
or would not subscribe to stock could easily enough vote for issuance of vil-
lage or town bonds. As Mr. Simmons tells for Lake Geneva: "This was
considered a glorious opportunity to get something for nothing, as we should
secure the road, while the bonds would pay for the stock — and the stock in
turn would pay the bonds, — and the dividends would pay the interest." Mr.
Cravarh says that Messrs. Cheney and Wakeley "were very successful in ob-
taining subscriptions, most of the inhabitants (at Whitewater) taking from
one to five shares." At Klkhorn whoso owned his home lot and one quarter-
acre lot besides was already well on the road to wealth not earned with hands.
In all this there was nothing peculiar to the men of Walworth. The Legisla-
ture of Wisconsin, like the legislatures of other states, had been chartering
possible and improbable railways since 1850. The air was everywhere filled
with talk of prosperity-bringing railways and of first-class cities springing
ii] > in a day and a night. An instance of great things unforetold : where was a
cornfield in 1855 was Clinton, Iowa, in 1856, with more than a thousand in-
habitants, and other thousands looked for by every train and river steamer.

Kenosha is but ten miles from Racine and, in seventeen years of strife
as to which should be greatest, had fallen somewhat behind. In that period
01 railway chartering, namely, in 1853, it did not seem impossible, at Kenosha.
to reverse their places in order of population and business, nor even to rival
Milwaukee. A charter was easily procured for a railway through Geneva and
Sharon to Beloit, and also an enabling act by which each town so traversed
might vote for an issue of bonds. Before the towns bad voted, a change of
route directed the line to Rockford by way of Genoa, with a design to reach
Rock Island and divide the trade of Iowa with Chicago. It was a Napoleonic

conception with a Water! ratcome. The Chicago & Northwestern Company

gave Kenosha a line to Rockford and thence not as Kenosha willed but as the
company found mos( to it^ own advantage. The little citv now prospers at a
healthy rate, from its natural advantages.

Milwankccans. too. saw in mind's eye a highway across Walworth fields
to Beloit, thus to conned their city with the trade of middle and farther Iowa.
This line was to come into the county from Mukwonagn and pass through
I .m Troy. Troy, Lafayette and Elkihorn, to Delavan and thence its trains
would use tlir Racine load's tracks to Beloit. Horatio llill, president, and
mosd of the directorate were oi Milwaukee. Among the local incorporators
were Manson II. Barnes, vice-president, Alender (A Babcock, secretary and

WALWORTH COCNTV, WISCONSIN. 1 89

treasurer. Elias Hibbard, Levi Lee, Joseph D. Monell. John A. Perry, Sewall
Smith, and Christopher Wiswell.

In 1857 the grading was well under way and there was every fair sign
that trains would run over the whole route within another year but for that
all-arresting monetary panic from which business had not yet recovered
when civil war began.

The collapse of all these plans of railway-building bore heavily on the
whole community, but upon none more than upon men who had too liberallv
mortgaged farms and homes to pay -subscriptions at the sales of stocks. The
towns could stagger along for a few years under their several loads of bonded
indebtedness. Both towns and farmers presently found that they had not to
settle with the bankrupted railway companies, but with men to whom panic
periods were their own peculiar harvest times; for there are few calamities
in human affairs so widespread and complete that a fortunate few, if so
minded, may not turn to their profit while the many "weep and bleed and
groan." So much like swindling it seemed, to men of the less complex civiliza-
tion of country life, to be held for the face value, or even a large-profit com-
promise value, of bonds which had cost the latest holders nearly nothing, that
something of the spirit of Bunker Hill was aroused. In April, i860, a suc-
cessor to the late Chief Justice Whiton was to be chosen, and an issue was
made, in several counties, on the validity of these farm mortgages. The
decisions of lower courts were often unpopular (though Judge Noggle, of
the first circuit, decided in 1859 against the bond holders), and the partly self-
victimized farmers and their friends looked to the supreme court for relief.
A. Scott Sloan, of Beaver Dam, in a temporarily famous letter to his brother,
Ithamar C. Sloan, of Janesville, seemed to take an equitable view of the ques-
tion. The letter was published in his interest, and it gained for him a large
majority of the vote of Walworth and of a few counties in similar plight. For-
tunately for the permanent credit of the state, Judge Dixon — already on the
bench by appointment — was elected, and the sober second thought of Wal-
worth helped to keep him in place until his resignation in 1K74. The year 1861
brought the new burdens of war to divide men's attention.

The whole story of the Wisconsin Central Railway is not yet told. Late
in 1856 nine miles of strap-rail, outworn in service of the Galena & Chicago
Union Railway, was laid from < ienoa to a point near Geneva village and trains
ran to and from Elgin. Thus the much desired connection was made with
Chicago. The next year the citizens of Geneva made an effort, and broughl
tracks and trains into the village. The depression of business, ever)
where continuing until hope could scarcel; cri ite from its own wreck new

I9O WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

hope and this with the wear and tear of the make-shift rail-laying, operated
to take away the locomotive and to put on a horse or mule team, and even
this reduction of power was again reduced, accidentally, by one-half.

The Chicago & Northwestern railway, in 1856, laid about four miles of
its track across a corner of the town of Sharon, making a station at the vil-
lage, and pushed onward to Janesville. The next year it was built to Fond
du Lac and probably farther. As far as now known the company asked
nothing and received nothing from Sharon but its right of way across that
fortunate town. Fifteen years later it came into Bloomfield and Geneva by
arrangement with a local company. In 1871 a few citizens of Geneva and
its vicinjty, among whom were Charles M. J laker, Robert H. Baker, John W.
Boyd, W. Densmore Chapin. Lewis Curtis. John Haskins, Thomas W. Hill,
Erasmus 1). Richardson, and Timothv Clark Smith, procured a charter for
the State Line and Union Railway Company, to be built from Genoa to
Columbus and thence to some point, not named, in the Kingdom of Ponemah.
President Baker made a contract with the Chicago & Northwestern company
to build and operate the road from Genoa Junction to Lake Geneva. In 1887
this load was extended to Williams Bay, six miles from the city, and ninety-
two miles from Chicago, and is now a part of a great system of connected
railways owning or operating ten thousand miles of tracks.

From time to time, after the Civil war, a faint hope was revived in the
minds of men by rumors of new corporate combinations which would or
might find it expedient to lay tracks from Lake Geneva to Whitewater and
obliquely onward toward the arctic circle. Between 1871 and 1881 the Chi-
cago, Portage & Lake Superior Railway Company acquired some more or less
disputed title to the right of way. cuts and dumps of the dead Wisconsin Cen-
tral company, and the brighter day for all here concerned seemed about to
break in sun-lighted splendor. But a transfer of a million dollars in paid stock
of the new company to the Chicago, Minneapolis & Omaha company, whose
interest, it seemed, was not to 1 mild this piece of road, soon dissipated that
ihi >rf lived dream.

At the legislative msmhh of iXNj a bill to bestow a grant of public land
upon the last named company was considered and passed. Donald Stewart.
an assemblyman for Walworth, moved an amendment requiring the company
to pa) certain old claims held by citizens of the county againsl the old com-
pany, The amendment failed of passage, hut Mr. Stewart signalized him-
self li\ a speech that commanded hearing, though it had no further effect at
M'adison. I lis opponents spoke in such high terms oi this speech that his
constituents were nearly persuaded that in the combative farmer of Sugar

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. ICjI

Creek the county had found its ablest and stoutest representative, past, present,
or likely soon to come, of its interests. He served another term, and then
his district forgot him and his great speech.

William R. Chadsey, one of the old Central company's building con-
tractors, had some real or shadow}- rights in its forlorn road-bed, and these
were more or less complicated by suits and cross-suits in the federal court at
Milwaukee. Having himself outlasted whatever commercial credit he might
once have had, he urged the attention of a few capitalists at New York to a
railway map of Wisconsin. Thus they might see readily that time had but
confirmed the wisdom of the first projectors in their choice of a way from
Chicago to anywhere in the farther Northwest. Long lines had since been
built on each side, leaving a rail-less belt of rich and highly improved farms,
each with its enormous barn, wind-mill, and other evidences of wisely-directed
and well-rewarded industry, and dotted with villages waiting but the railway-
builder's touch to make them each a forever-flourishing city. Gen. William
S. Rosecrans was called to their councils and was commissioned to come with
Mr. Chadsey and see for them what had been done, what must be done, and
to judge of the likelihood that enough local business could be assured to
warrant the outlay. The two men went over the line from Lake Geneva to
Portage, in July, 1883, and on reaching Whitewater found there a federal
marshal's deputy awaiting them with papers, enjoining them to perform no
act denoting possession of any part of the old line. Whatever ( feneral Rose-
crans reported, it has not since appeared that the men at New York cared to
invest in an endlessly complicated suit in the federal court.

In [886 a new Wisconsin Central railway was built from Chicago, cross-
ing the older lines from Kenosha and Racine at Fox River and Burlington,
respectively, and entering Walworth county at Honey (reek, making a station
at Lake Beulah, and passing through Waukesha county into the indefinite
northwest. It is now known as the Chicago division of the Minneapolis, Saint
Paul & Sault Sainte Marie railway system, controlling about four thousand
miles of track.

In [901 the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul company built its Chicago
Tanesville and Madison division, crossing the towns of Linn and Walworth
and a corner each of Sharon and Darien. Its stations within the county are
Zenda (in Linn), Walworth village, and Bardwell, ai first named Tioga, in
Darien.

Two short but very useful electric lines at presenl complete the railway
list of the county: from Harvard to Walworth village and Fontana in [899
and from Milwaukee by way of Mukwonago to Ea ' I roy village in rc;o8, Men

I92 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

were securing rights of way in 191 1 for an electric line from Lake Geneva to
Whitewater along the grades of the old Wisconsin Central company. Though
this action does not assure an early construction.it has raised, in the minds of
men. some renewal of old hope.

CHAPTER XVII.

COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY OLD SETTLERS' SOCIETY.

The county board. January S. (846, adopted a resolution directing Sheriff
Bell "to lease without rent the middle office on the east side of the hall in the
court house for the use of an historical society whenever said society shall be
formed in the county and shall desire the use of the same for a library and
cabinet. Said lease to be completed and ended whenever the board of super
visors shall so order, and said society is prohibited from keeping a fire and
lights in said room without the special consent of the sheriff." It is not prob-
able that the board thus acted on its own initiative, but quite likely that
Messrs. Dwinnell and Gale had prepared its way. Fifty-three citizens signed
a call for a meeting, to be held April 2d, to organize such a society!, but that
date had been fixed for a school convention at Elkhorn, and the matter was
neglected and forgotten.

\ small county, its towns settled nearly simultaneously and having lie
tween them no physical or other barrier: most of its permanent citizens known
eacli to each in the transaction of public and private business, and not a few
of them affected by ties of blood and marriage; the pioneer period only thirty
years behind and vividly remembered — such a county is the natural home of
an old settlers' society. So thought the men who met at the Farmers' Hotel,
in the homelike village of Darien, March 30. [869, organized a new count)
institution, and gave the old and the young of Walworth another yearly 1 1 < .It
day. A constitution was adopted: a president, seventeen vice-presidents, a
recording secretary, a corresponding secretary, a treasurer, and five executive
committeemen were chosen; a day was fixed, October 5, [869, for the first
yearly assemblage, on the fairground ai Elkhorn; and this constituent assem
bly then adjourned.

At the October meeting, the second Wednesday in June was appointed
tor the county reunions; but, since [875, these meetings have been held on
other June days and on other week day-. The sixth and seventh mi
were held at Lake Geneva, the ninth and tenth at Delavan, the eleventh and
twelfth at Whitewater. \11 the other meetings were held at the fair ground,
Elkhorn.

(13)

194 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

It was resolved June 18, 1879, to take measures to procure the compila-
tion and publication of a short, authentic history of the county with some
accounts of the lives and characters of no longer living pioneers; to urge the
co-operation of living pioneers and their children in the work of collecting
data; to appoint a historical committee to receive the gathered information
and to determine how much of it should be printed — the rest to be preserved
with the records of the society, — and to authorize the committee to choose a
suitable person as editor, who should prepare the selected matter for the
printer. All expense incurred was to be paid from the society's fund and
from proceeds of sales of the finished work. A special meeting was held at
the court house, September 2, 1879, at which James Simmons, Stephen G.
West and Rev. Joseph Collie were chosen as the historical committee, and a
large sub-committee of one or more men of each town was appointed for the
work of collecting data. The Western Historical Company (publishers), of
Chicago, became aware of the society's purpose, and arranged with the com-
mittee to take from Mr. Simmons the information — which must have been
considerable — already accumulated, to finish the compilation, to canvass the
county, and to deliver the completed work to subscribers. The book was as
nearly faultless in plan and execution, editorial and mechanical, as most
county histories of thirty years ago. Many of its minor errors might have
been corrected had proofs been sent to Mr. Simmons for revision. The his-
tory of each town closed with biographical sketches of notable citizens, nine
hundred and ten in all. The compiler. William G. Cutler, of Milwaukee, was
at almost infinite pains to secure full and accurate information. (His father.
General Lysander Cutler, was one of the commanders of the Iron Brigade —
men of Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan — the fame of which should be
deathless.) The book was published in 1882.

The presidents of the society have been men whose names appear once
or oftener in the official lists of the county and its towns, and hence most
readers will readily assign each to his home ;

Daniel Salisbury - March, [869 Charles R. Beach 1879

Le Grand Rockwell- -October. [889 Stephen Gano West 1880

Charles Minton Baker 1870, '71 Seymour I 'rooks 1881

Perry Green Harrington 1872 Chester Deming Long 1882

Cohn William Boyd [873, '74. '"? Cyrus Church 1883

George Cotton ■ 1876 Avery Atkins Hoyt 1884

Hiram Ashley Johnson 1877 Julius Allen Treat 1885

Otis Preston 1878 William Densmore Chapin, 1 886, '93

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

195

1887 Nelson West 1899

1888 Dwight Sidney Allen 1900, '05

1889 Henry George Hollister 1901

1 S< h 1 Darwin P. Clough 1902

1909 Theron Rufus Morgan 1903

1892 Albert E. Smith 1904

1894 William Allen Knilans T906

1895 Alexander Hamilton Allyn 1907

iS()f> James S. Reek (of Linn) 1908

1897 Leonard Cyrus Church 1910

1898 Walter F Babcock 191 1

The corresponding secretary from 1869 to 18S1 was Edward Elderkin,
except in 1872, when Peter Colder was chosen. The recording secretaries
were :

Carlos Lavallette Douglass

Daniel Locke

Simon Ruel Edwards

Doric Chipman Porter

Washington S. Keats 1891,

Herman A. Briggs

George Washington Wylie

\.sa Foster

James Simmons

Mortimer Treat Park

William Pitt Meacham

James Simmons 1869 to 1881

Levi E. Allen 1882

Fred Willard [sham__i883 to 1889
Jay Forrest Lyon, 1890 to 1894, '01

Stephen R. Edgerton 1895, 1896

Henry Henderson Tubbs, 1897 '98

Wallace Hartwell 1899

Le Grand Latham 1900

Wilbur George \\eeks__1902. [903

Francis Havilah Fames. 1904, 1905

John Henry Snyder, Jr., 1906, 1907

Norton E. Carter 1908

George Olney Kellogg r909

Will Edmund Dunbar 1910

James Elverton Brett 191 t

Albert C. Beckwith was chosen in 1894, but could not serve, and thus
Mr. Lyon added another year to his official usefulness.

The duties of treasurer have been well discharged by:

Hollis Latham 1869 to 1884 Fred Willard [sham 1901

Charles Wales 1885 to 1896 Charles Dunlap 1902 to 1908

Wallace Hartwell. 1897, 1898, 1900 Hark) Cornelius Nbrris 190*) 11

Le Grand Latham 1899

These yearly meetings, in the best of all the months, made opportunities
for a few hours of reunion of such of the pioneer families as bad been neigh-
bors and friends in their eastern homes, but had long been separated b\ nearh
the county's width. There was for several years yet so much of the pioneer
ways among them that it was not unusual to bring with them old-fashioned
picnic baskets, well filled with the richness of this favored land, and the fair-

I96 WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

ground buildings gave shelter when needed. Fortunate was the villager of
Elkhorn, who, straying among the several groups, found at lunch time old
or new friends from the county corners. For that once in the twelve-month
such hungry, water-mouthed wight might do as "Governor Hartran-uft."
who, it was told, "h'isted food at the Eisteddfod and stuffed, and stuffed,
and stuffed." It was a custom, for a few of these earlier years, of good Elk-
horners to supply the lunchers with enough coffee, sugar and cream for the
day's need. The pioneers are gone, and a fourfold cord no longer hinds the
society, but a threefold cord is still strong enough to hold together their suc-
cessors. The year's business is generally dispatched with little debate and
less dissenting vote. Domestic and imported speakers fling about their spells
of woven words and waving arms, thus to hind indulgently consenting hearers
to their hard seats and wearying standing places, alternating with band play-
ers and douhle-quartette singers. Governors, congressmen and eminent
thunderers at the bar of greater county seats have aforetime come this way
in much desired June, and may conic in long aftertime to lend the day each
his "small peculiar," and to see old Walworth in one of it- non-sectarian.
non-partisan, uncommercial, unscheming aspects.

The Walworth Count) Historical Society was incorporated August 29,
1904, by ten members of the I'M Settlers' Society. It was not attempted, as
in other years, to arouse the indifferent, nor to assemble unknown friends of
such a movement. Mr. Page said to a friend, "Let us act at once." Eight
more friends were ready for instant action, and the dream or hope of [846
became a reality. Nine of these movers were named in the first officer list.
which is yet unchanged 1 except as to treasurer) by election, resignation, re-
moval, or death; and the tenth lies in a soldier's grave. In it- first report, in
September, [904, to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, to which the
count) society is auxiliary, was shown a list of twenty members. Pursuant to
provisions of chapter '150, statutes of 11)07. a room in the basemenl of the
count \ courl building, well wanned and lighted and accessible, was in that
year placed at the society's service for storage of it- bulkier collections
\houi two hundred feet of shelving is crowded with its variously valuable
printed matter. I low this societ) sees the task it ha- undertaken may he
fudged, perhaps, from the following extract from it- reporl for 1006:

"This hod)- is made up of intelligent members, who are therefore ca-
pable of doing some useful work, and who. h\ the fad of their membership,
ma\ be presumed to he willing so to contribute to the society's objects. ITo
find and take some working part, greal or -mall. 1- to assure and increa -
ch one's permanent interest in the institution we have founded. We have

WALWORTH C01 NTY, WISCONSIN. 1 97

taken the first step, which costs; and movement forward at some fair rale,
and continuously, is but a just expectation. Neither one nor a hundred willing
minds and hands can do all that has been too long left undone; hut we can
gather no inconsiderable fraction of the records and memories of the past
and tlie passing, and can move onward with the ceaselessly coming.

"A great collection of hooks, pamphlets, circulars, maps, charts, diagrams,
pictures, autograph letters, and relics of real interest is very desirable; hut
such matter will accumulate with comparatively little effort. The most im-
portant division of our work — one that may yet give some distinction to our
societv — is what each member or his friends may contribute: Manuscript
accounts of early arriving families; of the earlier social life; of long-gone
relatives and esteemed friends; of pioneer road-making; of abandoned high-
wavs; of the growth of villages; of church building; of earlier schools; of
business development, and changes therein; of the decay of certain industries
and the causes thereof; of crop-, greatly above or below the average; of
changes in the county landscape arising from known causes; of earlier
caucuses, conventions, and public meetings; of various phases of public
opinion; of early mail communication; of wayside taverns; of stage routes;
of past generations — how they lived, how employed and amused themselves;
where men and families came from, and whither they went for greener
graves: of epidemic diseases and other notable calamities; of the personal
appearance and distinctive qualities of men in public service, and similarly of
law vers, physicians, and clergymen; of personal service in war; of local geo-
graphical names now disused or not found on maps — in short, of things the
like of which we mis- in the meager details of the histories of our ancestral
Eastern towns, and which will he valuable in many ways to coming genera-
tions, since they will show how men, women and children of the nineteenth
and first decade of the twentieth centuries lived, thought and acted."'

MEM BER LIST.

Adkins, Henry De Lafayette. Elkhorn 1904

Beckwith, Albert Clayton. Elkhorn |

Beckwitb, Edward Seymour (died), Elkhorn [904

Hill. Dr. Benjamin Jephthah, Genoa Junction |'M<>

Bradley, Henrj (died), Elkhorn [908

*Bradley. William Mallory, Sail Lake City 1905

Brett, Jame> Elverton, Springfield i9°5

Carswell, Orland, Elkhorn |'>"|

I98 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Child, William. Lafayette 1906

Cook, Daniel Seymour, Whitewater 1911

Derthick, Edna Lorene, Elkhorn I9°4

*Douglass, Carlos Stewart, Fontana 1910

Eames, Francis Havilah, Elkhorn I9°4

Fellows, Theodore A. (died), Genoa Junction 1910

Flanders, Joseph Taylor (died), Lyons 1909

Frater, George William, Elkhorn I9°7

Goff, Sidney Clayton, Elkhorn I9°8

Harrington, Grant Dean, Elkhorn 1910

*Isham, Fred Willard, Elkhorn 1904

Isham, Ruth Eliza (Wales), Elkhorn 1904

Kellogg, George Olney, Elkhorn 1905

*Kinne, Dr. Edward, Elkhorn I9°4

Larnard, Ira Pratt, Delavan 1911

Lean, Frank William, Lagrange I9°5

Lyon, Jay Forrest, Elkhorn I9°4

Meacham. William Pitt (died), Troy 1911

Morgan, Theron Rufus (died). Elkhorn ■ 1905

Morrison. Smith Baker, Elkhorn ■ I9°6

Page. Jaw Wright. Elkhorn I9°4

Rockwell. Le Grand, Elkhorn T9°6

Skiff. Benjamin Franklin. Flkhorn 1904

Skiff, Tris Emeline (Stowe), Elkhorn I9°4

Snyder, Clifford Francis. Munich 1906

*Snyder. John Henry, Jr.. Elkhorn I9°4

Sprague, Edward Harvey, Elkhorn . 1904

Thomas. Katherine Wentworth, Elkhorn 1904

♦Wales, Charles Marshall. New York 1904

"West, Walter \anm. Elkhorn 1004

Mr. Morgan died September 28, [905; E. S. Beckwith, May 28, 1009;

Henry Bradley, August 17. [909; Captain Fellows died Fehruan 10. 1012;

Mr. Flanders, December [6, [909. Asterisks denote members of the State
Society. Officers, 1904-11)11: Beckwith, president: Lyon, vice-president;
I. II. Snyder, secretary; Kinne, corresponding secretary; Eames, librarian:
Carswell, treasurer; Page, F, W. [sham and Sprague, executive committee.

CHAPTER XVIII.

EDITORSHIP AUTHORSHIP THE FINE ARTS.

Since no country nor generation of men is permitted to foreknow how
much of its own literature shall live and become classic, it is, of course, yet
too early to say what and how much of the Walworthian product of seventy-
five vears will outlive contractor-built state houses and the everywhere seen
triumphs of statuary art. If another Sidney Smith should ask who reads a
book, goes to a play, looks at a picture or statue, of Walworthian make, or
what the world owes to Walworthian science or industrial skill, the answer
must be a re-echo of the unkindly needless question. But, if there is a great
uncaring world outside of Walworth, there is, too, a modestly self-esteeming
world-in-little within her borders — one which lives not alone by the products
of her fertile acres. As vet it is true ( not too true, but simply true i that neither
son nor daughter of one of these seventeen towns has gained greatest dis-
tinction in literature or other form of art, or has greatly enlarged the domain
of pure or applied science, or has added to the list of best-selling patent rights.
But there were early signs and are yet tokens of aspiration in all these
directions.

The foundations of written history, for this county, were laid chiefly by
Mr. Dwinnell, Judges Gale and Baker, Prosper Cravath and James Simmons.
Others have contributed their personal recollections and impressions, of less
historical value, but interesting and useful. But if these five forethoughtful
men had not made and preserved notes concerning men they knew and events
in which they had a part, the county's history would be but gleanings from
the broken files of newspaper, from the sometimes discontinuous official lists,
and from the meager and disjointed minutes of clerks and secretaries of the
courts and boards — often needing for their interpretation the intelligent mem-
ory of men long ago dead. It is not much which these early chroniclers and
annalists have left to posterity, hut. such as it is, it supplies the <\r\ bones of
clerical entries with -Mine flesh and blood to give them more human aspect.

Rev. Solomon A. Dwinnell, for nearly fourteen year- resident in La-
fayette, removed in [850 to Reedsburg. lie then seems to have planned a
history of the pioneer period of the count) he had left. lie made a
considerable roll of scrappy notes — historical, descriptive, reminiscent and

2O0 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

reflective. His papers contain autobiographical sketches, prepared at his re-
quest by Dr. Mills and Judge Allen. In these papers Judge Allen, though not
excessively diffident nor sparing of words, tells too little; while Dr. Mills,
thought quite modest enough and not too lavish of words, tells too much.
Mr. Dwinnell died in 1879, and Mrs. Dwinnell gave his manuscripts to the
State Historical Society, and part of their contents have been published in
that body's "Collections."

Judge Gale made sixteen very orderly, legible and helpful foolscap pages
of notes on the settlement and organization of the county, its early school
meetings, temperance movements, and the first newspaper — his own. at Elk-
horn in 1845. He knew that of which he wrote, and his accuracy may easily
enough be trusted. His interest in public affairs was active and intelligent,
and his judgment of men with whom he acted appears to have been calmly
favorable — neither censorious nor eulogistic.

ludge Baker's chief service to local history is contained in a paper first
read at a meeting of old settlers in [869, then revised by himself and. with
an introduction by Lyman C. Draper, published in the State Historical So-
cietv. sixth volume of "Collections." It naturally lacks Judge Gale's concise-
ness, since it covers a longer period of time and includes greatly more detail
of local interest. His estimate of Judge Irvin proves himself an indulgent
judge of his fellow men.

fames Simmons published his carefully compiled "Annals of Lake Ge-
neva." 222 pages octavo, in [897. lie was in every way qualified a- to judg-
ment, taste and literary turn of mind, and by his personal knowledge and his
wide acquaintance with men of the county, for the preparation of this valuable
local history, lie should have been, had other pursuits allowed, the historian
of the county. In such case, his work would have l>een done with all possi-
ble fullness and accuracy, and in kindliest spirit — and in his own clear, grace-
ful style.

Prosper Cravath, surveyor and lawyer, and not unskilled in the art of
telling himself "for many years really the foremost citizen of Whitewater"
in tS;N published his recollections and impressions of the village a- he
knew it between [837 and [857. This was in a series of articles for the
Whitewater Register. Pitt X. Cravath began a continuation of his father's
ik by compiling from the local columns of thai helpful newspaper. His
friend. Spencer S Steele, who had promised to share the proposed labors,
presently found himself sole compiler. Cravath's notes having been lost, Mr.
Steele u.i- obliged to begin at [858, and he carried the work forward t" [868.
The Civil war, as it affected the town and village, received full attention, and

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 201

several circumstances of long later interest to soldiers and their friends are
thus preserved permanently. In [906 these partial histories, with shod
papers by Airs. Melinda I Mack) Pratt, Julius C. Birge, Mrs. Louise I Wood-
bury 1 Palmiter. Daniel Seymour Cook. Mrs. Rachel O. (Shepard) Cook,
Edwin D. Coe and Albert Salisbury, were published as "Annals of White-
water," a duodecimo volume of 283 pages, edited by Prof. Salisbury and pub-
lished by the "Federation of Women's Clubs in Whitewater."

The newspaper, from 1845 onward, afforded an outlet for the breathing
thoughts and unfrozen words of men who cared not to go to the length of
pamphlet or book on politics, temperance, public morals, currency, state reve-
nue and many another more or less fiercely burning question of their time;
and on the less combustible topics of schools, farmers' interests and local im-
provements. These articles, even if unsigned, were often, if not usually, too
carefully thought and too ably and forcibly written to be mistaken for edi-
torial effort; though editorship here was not inferior to that of other counties.
At the least, these volunteer contributors gave wholesome variety to the
weekly editorial entertainment. Among the occasional writers now mosl
easily and clearly recalled were Judges Baker, Gale, Colder, Spooner and
Wentworth, Cyrus Church. Cravath, Eastman, George Esterly, Milton Gard-
ner. Osborn Hand, Dr. Henderson. Menzie, Dr. Reynolds, Simmons, H. F.
Smith and A. S. Spooner.

Whatever may be other or final judgment as to the relative merits of
these men. considered as writers, for the purpose of this volume. Wvman

S] ner is placed first. He thought with deliberate care, and wrote like a

master of that classic English prose of which his long study and great love
had availed him much, preferring "high seriousness," but not scornful of oc-
casional lighter graces of literary composition. Mr. Church wrote of (he
earlier schools of Walworth, in new-paper articles preserved in the Historical
Society's much-containing scrap-books. Mr. Hand, a nearly self-taught
teacher and very thorough in the rudiments, had also read the English classics
with pleasure and profit: but his written matter was less weighty than
Spooner's. He had some eccentricities in conversation, but he wrote candidly
and clearly. Hi-; friend. Eastman. loved paradox so well that hi- simpler-
minded friends knew not when he was sincere. Dr. Samuel Win Henderson
wrote in the spirit of the duelisl who lire- to kill, and sometimes illustrated
with hi- own jack-knife "it white pine, a- wickedly Funny as Nast's pictorial
persecution-, though in other ways quite unlike. Menzie wrote with much
abilitv and vigor, but a- if duly retained, like a practical lawyer. Mr.
Simmons was possessed of nearly all the mental, moral and personal qualities,

202 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

and in not noticeably lower degree, that lie so generously ascribed to Judge
Baker. It is not unlikely that he had a finer, nicer literary sense than his
friend; though one would not willingly compare these men to the lessening of
either. He wrote with a natural grace of his own and with seeming ease,
though his materials were often enough collected with patient care. He could
write in terms of partisan warfare, but that was not his chosen task. In his
later life he was employed in "digesting" the vast bulk of decisions of the
higher courts of New York and of Wisconsin. His older fellow citizens had
long hoped that whenever Judge Golder should lay off the burden of the
county judgeship its honors and salary would pass to such a worthy suc-
cessor; but a little- revering generation gave a small plurality to a younger
man, a nearly newcomer, though Mr. Simmons was second among four candi-
dates. The other aforenamed writers wrote with much ability, and with
more or less vigor and elegance, like decently educated gentlemen, but with
no strongly marked distinctiveness of style.

In newspaper editorship the highest place must be accorded, as his birth-
right and his conquest, to Edwin Delos Coe. He was equipped for duty by
various experiences, as student, soldier, lawyer, before he began "to turn the
crank of an opinion mill" at Whitewater. The Register had always been one
of the best village newspapers in the state. Mr. Coe soon placed it beside the
"first among equals." His well-filled local page reflected his most likable
personality, and he was not hidden or disguised in his incomparable editorial
column. I k- wrote with no air of superior wisdom or authority, but bestowed
freely upon his fellow editors his professional and personal courtesy, which
fell like the dew of ITermon upon the half-deserving and the nearly undeserv-
ing, lie affected nothing, not even modesty, though never a man with a press
at his hark was less self-assertive. When the sterner duty of a party organ
called upon him to smite and spare not, his pen became indeed a wea]>on of
offense. I If was wholly free from editorial or literary jealous), hut over-
generously gave others "more praise than niggard truth would willingly im-
part." In short, lie brought to his work' learning, world-knowledge, judg-
ment, tact, insight, wide-ranging fellow feeling, humor, and with these all
the armory of wordy war.

Major Shepard S. Rockwood, an infant settler of Lafayette, ex-soldier,
normal school professor of literature and mathematics, poet, elocutionist and
scholar in politics, was in his own way as editorially Forceful as Coe and
more industrious and laborious, lie wrote with the precision, directness and
conclusiveness of geometrical demonstration. As a means to his political ad-
vancement he bought the senior paper at Elkhorn, in 1882, and for one vear

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 203

edited even' line of it, even to its stereotype plates. He made the Independent
a positive quantity and an appreciable force in Wisconsin newspaperdom.
His hope was to sit in the Assembly of 1883 and in the forty-ninth and sub-
sequent Congresses; but the men of the district which he had left in boyhood
and to which he had but lately returned, knew little of him, except that he
seemed "too far up the gulch" for them. Besides. 1882 was a politically bad
year for many another honorably aspiring citizen. He passed early in [883
to a daily paper at Janesville, and thence to the Register, at Portage, where
he died in 1905.

Ely B. Dewing's education was of common schools and printing offices.
He had an early liking for the best in literature, and his style was formed,
not by conscious or unconscious imitation of any of the masters, but by catch-
ing something of the breath and finer spirit of many. He never accepted him-
self as a great writer, and thence, perhaps, was a greater than he knew. His
knowledge of men best worth knowing was not so state-wide as that of Coe,
Rockwood or Cravath; but his work and ways were not provincial. To these
contemporary editors he was not a jealous rival, but a kindred soul. As act-
ing editor of the Independent from mid-1884 to the end of 18S8. he gave
that paper some distinction in Wisconsin pressdom. His was within that
golden period when Horace Rublee, John Xagle. Governors Hoard and Peck,
Lute Niemann, James Monahan, Nicholas Smith. Champion Ingersoll and
Colonel Watrous gave wholesome substance and variously pleasing and stimu-
lant flavor to editorial discussion and local commentary.

In most ways different from these three rare spirits, though in his own
way fit to make them four, was Pitt Noble Cravath. Apparently unlike' his
father and mother in body, mind and spirit, though, no doubt, he was in some
way their true heir, he seemed rather Gallic than Anglo-Saxon. Tie was
readily drawn to new things in politics, but not disposed to overturn the social
order, and he loved the clamor of partisan discussion — himself one of the
noisiest, but least likely to degenerate to demagogism or fanaticism. The
work of party organization was very much to his liking. His paper, al first
named the "Ptiddingstick." was edited with sufficient vivacity and originality,
but did not much reflect his personal qualities. Ili^ tongue, organ of his
impulsiveness, might move him to much radical utterance: hut his pen sub-
dued him to editorial decorum. A second newspaper at a city or village of
Walworth may bring a little fleeting fame, hut it requires mure than brilliant
editorship to make it live and support a family, 1 ravath had other abilities,
and the county was not yet ready for political revolution and reconstruction.

In their own day it was good fortune to know these four editors, and it

204 WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

is yet pleasant to such as live and remember, though it be regretfully, to have
known them. It was not editorship that passed away with their death or re-
tirement, but only the quality or flavor that each gave it from his own person-
ality. Men whose shadows now lengthen in the low westering sun may re-
call, without morbidness, the memory of thing's that "come not back with time
and tears."

It would be as easy to tell who first broke the surface of the county with
a factory-made garden spade as to name the first to "build the lofty rhyme."
She may have been one of the Misses Bigfoot, in Algonquin elegiacs, not
translatable without damage to its sense and beauty. He may have been
Christopher Payne, whose life was a Homeric epic, and whose precious manu-
script may have been destroyed in the war with Brink. Since chronological
order is impossible, no order at all may answer here.

If this county ever really had a poet the critics must determine between
George W. Steele and Shepard S. Rockwood. In 1904 Mr. Steele published
a small volume, "Dierdre, a Tale of Erin, and Other Verse." The legends of
the Celtic maiden are as numerous as those of the Arthurian heroines, and
tlu- lawyer of Whitewater owed nothing to Mr. Yeats. It is not the general
purpose here to assort, grade or appraise the poetic product of the county, but
a few words may not lie useless. The diction and idiom of these poems are
English and intelligible, neither "gaud} nor inane." There is in them neither
Greek nor Browningese, no affectations of obsolete words and grammar, even
those of Chaucerian or Spenserian kind or flavor, no ingenious coinages, no
new licenses or excess of old ones, no patent-applied- for philosophy of life,
nebulous metaphysics, questioning of omnipotent purpose, and not too much
of Arnoldian high seriousness. Neither is there more echo of the ancient and
modern (lassies than one likes to meet in reading new authors. If these nega-
tives do not prove this volume poetry, they may indicate that the author
wrote with judgment and taste, and that his work may claim fairly thus much
ii' 'I ice in this compilation.

The total sum of Major Rockwood's published poetry would not till
more than ,1 vest-pocket volume, lie was not unknown as a paid contributor
to Eastern magazines, and wrote poems for greal occasions One of his more
notable efforts "l" the latter kind, recited in his intense manner of declama-
tion t" a state mass meeting "i Republicans at Madison in 1880, was said to
have drawn iron tears down Zachariah Chandler's cheeks, lu his not too
frequent lighter moods Rockwood dropped into politico-satirical lyrics; but.
in general, his muse was a well behaved, sobei minded member of the sacred
nine, lie had strong common sense and well controlled feeling, and also sense

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. .20^

of poetic form with feeling for the sweetness of unheard melody. Thus, his
thought was not commonplace, his expression mawkish, nor his lines left
half-filled.

Most spontaneous, facile, fluent of home poets was in the fifties, a young
man of Elkhorn, at once, and in proportions about equal, a poet, mechanical
inventor, journalist and critic. Horace Lucian Arnold's fast-driven pen
dropped eight-syllable rhymed couplets as if their flow were endless, and no
verse form was beyond its achievement. This promising young man's poetical
reading had given him a standard for measurement of his own product, and
he was too self-critical to print his clever crudities. Nor would he revise.
recast, or redress them. It was easier to write a wholly new poem tonight
than to perfect last night's work. In the course of more than fifty years he
has contributed poems, stories, reporter work, reviews, mechanical and scien-
tific discussion to the press of Chicago, New York, Edinburgh and elsewhere.
Though his work has never quite reached greatness, it is virile, and it usually
compels some reader's attention. A collection, with due selection, of his
lyrics would show that here was one more of Walworth to whom poetrv was
not a thing of rhyme-ends onlv.

The county has known and sometimes honored its own song writers,
poets of occasions and casual contributors to the poet's corner. Rev. Henry
De Lancey Webster, Ely B. Dewing. John L. Forrest, John T. Wentworth,
James Simmons. S. Fillmore Bennett, Charles H. Burdick and Mrs. Harriet
Marian | Perkins) Leland are among the best remembered. Of the living
there are many more, no doubt, than can be named here; and their modest
merit is known to a few friendly readers. Though the wide world may never
find out these younger children of the muse, the sweetness of a well-
remembered line, stanza, or poem may linger yet long in some kindly memory.
Seth Knapp Warren, son of the pioneer mill owner, had more education
and a better reading habit than most of his schoolmates at Lake Geneva, and
in later life turned more than the\ to the story of the universe, as told bj the

"i" and the later scientists He digested his reading at leasl partially, and
the resull of his reading and thinking or musing was a bound volume of

ii\ four small pages, printed at home in [888. His matter is chiefly a
compact and generall) fairly and temperately worded, though possibly in-
accurate restatement of the theorj of evolution a- to the origin of stars and
solar system-. His own attitude is indicated in few words at page i (.: "Bui
until some theorj i which can show clearly that thi i natural

powers * * * could form solar stems, with all their motions, from
chaos we would better follow and teach the biblical accounl of creation; as ii

206 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN".

is, even in its literal sense, the most reasonable that has ever been written."
He objects to science that while it has found much of the laws of the universe,
it lias wholly failed to find the law-giver ; and he shrewdly takes into his ac-
count the differences he finds among scientists. His work had the approval
of the late Rev. Isaac N. Marks, of the Episcopal church at Lake Geneva.
It is at least easy to read, for it is seasoned with fewest technical terms and
is wholly free from mathematical formulae and scientific tabulations. Mr.
Warren wrote and talked like an intelligent gentleman, and he had, moreover,
some artistic tastes and aspirations.

In the art of musical composition the county for long heard but one
name, that of Joseph P. Webster, who came from Racine to Elkhorn in 1857
as a teacher of music. Between that year and his death in 1875, it is believed,
he produced most of his songs, cantatas and other compositions. His pub-
lishers were Higgins & Company. Lyon & Healy and Root & Cady, of Chi-
cago, and Ditson, of Boston. A flood of newer music has half-effaced the
recollection of his once familiar titles, though nut all have thus been retired
from public favor. The little story of one of these seems worth preserving.

In 1865, L. J. Bates, of Detroit, submitted to Lyon & Healy the words
of a song and asked for a suitable composer. He was advised to write to
Air. Webster, and in the same year these publishers put forth "It Will Be
Summertime, By and By," words by L. J. Bates, music by J. 1'. Webster. It
is not here known how much favor this song found, but it is recalled that it
was sung at the dedication of the Normal School at Whitewater in 1870.
Five four-line stanzas, with each a varying five-line chorus, contained these
lines, the second of each chorus: "Wait we the dawn of the
bright by and by; Watch for the day-star of the dear by and 1>\ : I 'ray for
the dawn of the sweet by and by; Is there, oh! is there a glad by and by:
Herald the dawn of the blest by and by." The closing lines of these choruses
were: "It will lie summertime by and by; Earth will be happier, bv and by;
Truth will be verified, by and by; Faith will be justified, by and by; Right
will be glorified, by and by." The principal lines recited the several wrongs
endured by poor humanity.

These lines seemed to Mr. Webster to express the thought which he had
no skill to utter but in music, and their writer became at once his dear friend.
One of these phrases he repeated so often that another song-writer in 1868
fol'owed its hint and gave it a new setting. Mr. Webster went home, and
choosing from his store of musical memoranda that which besl suited his sense
of the occasion's propriety, he worked out with his habitual care and patience
the "Sweet By and By." on which the world lias been pleased to rest his

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 20/

fame as a composer. For him there was no such word as '"impromptu" in art.
Passages, long 01 short, might he "inspired," but the entire and perfect work
must be reached by the methods of other artists, lie worked by the laws of
his own intellect and feeling, which he obeyed because he could not suspend
or change them. He was self-critical, and he knew well when he could work
and when he must wait. Xo publisher could urge him, no fellow-composer
advise him, no friend lead him. He was little critical as to the literary quality
of songs offered him. but only required that their sentiment should be humane
and decent, and that harsh consonantal sounds should be filed to smoothness.

Frank S. Harrington I 1 854-1909), a son of Nicholas M. Harrington, of
Delavan and Darien, became at an early age a singer of more than usual prom-
ise. Fncouraged by the friendly appreciation and advice of Professor Web-
ster, he subjected himself to thorough training in the principles of musical
composition, and for several years was known to eastern publishers as a com-
poser of organ music. At the time of bis death he seemed on the way to
greater distinction in his art.

The schools of Boston. London, Paris and Rome have drawn from the
county several pupils of the higher culture and instruction in vocal and instru-
mental music. The art of hearing music is also cultivated, and the lights of
the operatic or lyric stage draw yearly hundreds of hearers to Chicago and
Milwaukee, each for at least one evening's soul-felt delight. Such singers and
performers of national fame as do not scorn the smaller audiences find ap-
preciative hearers at the cities of Walworth. Local philharmonic clubs lend
their not negligible influence to elevate the public taste for immortal music.
In olden time, too, the county has had its string bands, cornetists, flutists,
pianists and vocalists, their various performances, once thought incompara-
ble, yet recalled as remembered pleasures.

The palette and brush have drawn many young men and maidens aside
from commoner things, though few have persevered, and fewer are within
any one person's present recollections. This, of course, by reason of their
long absence. One of these was John Bullock, at Lake Geneva, who painted
landscapes with some success and who seemed born for further achievement
hail not fate been untoward. David Walling Humphrey, a school boy at
Elkhorn and art student at Chicago, has won recognition among artists.
William T. Thorne, of Delavan, has reached a high place as a portrait painter,
and has his studio at New York. Adolph T. Schultz, also of Delavan, lianas
his landscapes at the Chicago Art Institute. Clifford Francis Snyder, of Elk-
born, practiced as a doctor of dental surgery for some years at Berlin, having.
though a young man. imperial patronage, for American dentistry was then in

208 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

high favor there. He sold his business and placed himself under Benjamin
Constant's instruction at Paris, and later under that of Albert Nieuwhuis, at
Laren, Holland. From boyhood his aptness in portrait drawing was marked.
He went in jcjoo to "Munich, there to sojourn, it may be, until overtaken by
fame, wealth, or death.

Oratory, as an art. has had here but one true votary, namely, John
Luther Lamkin (1854-1896), of that part of Sharon town called South
Grove. He wedded himself to a possibly original theory of his art: in effect,
that voice and action are all, — if, only the voice be trained to the hoarseness
of thunder and the action be suited to the orator's conception of the beauti-
fully terrific in muscular motion. His words need have no meaning, if but
polysyllabic and sonorous. He imagined or boasted that he could crack a
plate glass window by an abrupt emission of sound from the lower cells of his
lungs. But Lamkin threw thunderbolts gracefully, and his meeting, saluting,
passing, parting, even on the street, were fine-art illustrations. For the
rest, he was a thrifty farmer and a worthy citizen.

Since 1856 the only lawyers who seem to have cultivated a great forensic
style were Norton and Ingalls. William C. Norton was son of a farmer of
Lafayette. I lis voice and manner were somewhat dramatic. Inn lie was re-
garded as a forceful speaker. None better than he could raise an ant-hill
matter to the height of the tree tops, and none could better move his client
to self-pitying. Wallace [ngalls, a native of Linn, acquired an agreeable and
effective delivery and never forgot to adjust his words and actions to the
needs of his carefully considered matter. Alphonso G. Kellam, Alfred D.
Thomas, Thompson 1). Weeks and Charles B. Sumner never attempted the
higher flights; but the) are Favorablj remembered for their clear, candidly
persuasive and gentlemanly manner of laying their cases before jurors — often
the most effective eloquence. Each of these men was often called upon as
speaker for more public occasions. None of them, excepl [ngalls, now at
Racine, is yet living.

CHAPTER XIX.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The formation of local temperance societies began at Spring Prairie as
early as 1838. In this work the men and women of Delavan, Elkhorn, Geneva,
and Whitewater were but a few weeks or months behind Mr. Dwinnell's
neighbors. At Lake Geneva. December 25, 1839, a temperance society was
formed by fifty citizens, at Mr. Baker's house: Benjamin Ball, president;
John Chapin, vice-president; Charles M. Baker, secretary; Charles M. Good-
sell, William K. May and Morris Ross, executive committee. In the autumn
of 1843 a county society of Wasbingtonians was formed at a meeting as-
sembled at the -court house. Its officers were Doctor Mills, president ; William
A. Bartlett and Jarvis K. Pike, vice-presidents; James Simmons, secretary;
George Gale, treasurer; James O. Eaton, Solomon A. Dwinnell and Expe-
rience Estabrook, executive committee. No further record of this societv is
found, but among well-remembered and oft-repeated names of organizers and
sympathizers are those of Ball, Baker, the Goodsells, Hall, Lake. McNish,
the Phoenixes, Potter, the Spooners, Sturtevant, Topping and Vail.

These early movements were followed by a continuous line of societies
similar in form and devoted to like purpose, namely: By moral suasion to
induce men to become total abstainers from the products of the distillery,
brewery, wine-vat and cider-press Closely after them came, first, the Sons of
Temperance, then the Good Templars. — both continuing with varying acti\it\
and energy until all such societies, with their doctrines and rituals, became
supplanted by or merged in politically organized prohibitionism. Hut the
growth of total abstinence, as a habit of life rather than as a moral dogma
professed, is not exactly measurable by the number of votes counted lor the
Prohibitionist party ticket.

Until 1871 the statutory fee for bar-room license was nol less than twen
ty-five nor more than fort) dollars. In 1873 the higher limit was made one
hundred dollars, and in [874 one hundred and fiftj dollars. |n September,
1889. pursuant to a new statute, the villages voted separately to determine if
flu- fee should be two hundred and fifty dollars, three hundred and fifty
dollar-, or five hundred dollars, and the highest sum prevailed. When the

(14)

2IO WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

license fee was lowest it went, appropriately enough', to the poor fund : when
increased it went to road and street fund ; it is now part of the general fund
of cities, villages and towns. The effect of the higher fee has not heen
to reduce the number of drinking places — nor, perhaps, to increase it. though
there are more licenses issued than before.

CIVIC SOCIETIES.

The several affiliated societies, fraternal and benevolent, found here at
once a friendly atmosphere; for, within and without the lodge rooms, Wal-
worth is sociable and neighborly. Freemasonry began almost with the villages,
and, though it has felt some alternations of zeal and luke-warmth, it has with-
stood the assaults of well-meaning opponents at home and of wandering
apostles from Wheaton. It was never healthier in body and spirit than it is
here in 1911. Its feminine ally, the Order of the Eastern Star, also finds favor
here as elsewhere about the states. The list of lodges, past and present, is
shown as follows:

Harmony Xo. 12, Delavan (with Elkhorn), discontinued in 1859.

St. James No. 41, East Troy, chartered in 1853.

Geneva No. 44, Lake Geneva, chartered in 1853.

St. John's No. $y. Whitewater, chartered in 1855.

Elkhorn No. yy. Elkhorn, chartered in 1856.

Sharon No. 116, Sharon, chartered in [859.

Delavan No. 121, Delavan, chartered in [860.

I >arien No. 126, Darien. chartered in i860.

Spring Prairie No. 1 .V- Spring Prairie, discontinued 1904.

Geneva Junction Xo. 250, Geneva Junction, chartered in [894.

Walworth Xo. 286, Walworth, chartered in [903.

There are Four Royal Arch chapters: Elkhorn Xo. 17. Union 1 at Lake
Geneva) Xo. 28, Delavan Xo. 38, Whitewater Xo. 00. A commandery of
the Masonic degrees of knighthood, at Delavan, is numbered 33.

Odd Fellowship had also an early foothold, and ha^ not yel yielded
wholly to the rivalry of the younger orders. Knights of Pythias, Modern
Woodmen, Catholic Knights and Knights of Columbus have each established
their claim to recognition as a part of modern social life.

The Grand Army of the Republic, its membership limited by the lives
of one generation of men, is by that circumstance peculiarly conditioned. Its
normal growth was rapidly upward, reaching its maximum within a few years,
after which it^ course must he steadily downward until nothing hut its records

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 211

and its few relics shall be left as reminders that such a post-bellum comrade-
ship once existed. Its several posts are named and numbered thus:

Abraham Lincoln No. 3, Darien ; George H. Thomas No. 6, Delavan ;
James B. McPherson No. 27, Lake Geneva; Charles E. Curtice No. 34. White-
water; Rutherford B. Hayes No. 76. Elkhorn; Henrv Conklin No. 171. East
Troy ; Duane Patten No. 270, Sharon.

TURTLE CREEK DRAINAGE DISTRICT.

Proceeding under provisions of chapter 419, statutes of 1905. two-thirds
or more of the interested owners of land lying along Turtle creek and marsh
filed their petition, November 1, 1908, to the circuit court for the establish-
ment of the Turtle Creek Drainage District. Charles Dunlap, Henry D.
Barnes and John G. Meadows were appointed commissioners, and took the
oath of office April 19, 1909. Thev were empowered to survey and determine
such ditch lines as they should find practical and expedient, to appraise bene-
fits and damages, and on acceptance of their report to let the contract and see
it faithfully performed. Henry H. Tubbs was employed as civil engineer.
There were several ineffectual remonstrances received and filed, and on June
26, 191 1. the contract was filed. The work is practically begun. The main
ditch begins in section 14 of Richmond, and ends in section 6 of Delavan, its
course generally that of the creek. Its length is 5.94 miles, depth four to
seven feet, with a fall of 14.93 teet- Four lateral ditches — one from section
19 of Sugar Creek — have a total length of 5 25 miles, with fall varying be-
tween 9.15 and [5.2 feet. These nearly eleven miles of ditching and dredging
will cost nearly $38,000, and will drain 3.188 acres. The work includes thirty-
four bridges or crossings.

TROY DRAINAGE DITCH.

A similar petition of owners along the great Hone) creek marsh was
filed in the circuit clerk's office April 13. [910. Judge Belden appointed Walter
A. Babcock, Charles H. Nott and George B. Cain as commissioners and these
men took the official oath October 8, [910. ( In this, as in the other com-
mission, the member first named is chairman, the second is secretary, and the
third is treasurer.) Their report has been accepted, the contract will be let
early in T912. and the work will begin without delay. The main ditch, from
a point in section 25 to a point near the middle of section 31, is 3.375 miles
long, two to twelve feet deep, and lias eighteen feet fall. There are seven

212 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

lateral ditches with total length of 8.75 miles. These ditches will be crossed
by thirty-eight bridges, one of which will cost $1,500. This work will re-
cover or improve 4,832 acres of land, at a cost of nearly 850,000.

COUNTY COMMISSIONER OF ROADS.

At the session of the county board, November, 191 1, Herman J. Peters,
of Sharon, was chosen county commissioner of roads. This was in accord-
ance with a statute providing for a state system of road-making.

ASSESSOR OF INCOME TAX.

Pursuant to a statute of 19] 1 the office of supervisor of assessments has
been abolished, and that of assessor of income tax created. The first ap-
pointee, in 19 1 2, is William Francis Dockery, of Whitewater.

THE SPECULATIVE SPIRIT.

Not every man of older Walworth was entirely content to hoe in prairie
mould or drudge in village labor for plain subsistence and scant\" savings.
Hardy men went, in iN-|.<) and after years, around Cape Horn and across
plains and Sierras fur the gold of California and Pike's Peak, and a few
came back rich in one kind of experience. Other men, in another way adven-
turous, confided part of their little surplus to the keeping of the beneficent
lottery, and the example of one who drew $3,000 was for long set forth in
Mons. Dauphin's advertisements and circulars as proof that they only can
win greatly who risk a little. Thu>. the sanguine projectors and reckless
schemers ol a later period did not break new ground here.

The return of gold and silver to general circulation, after seventeen
years of irredeemable paper currency, gave rebirth to business of every kind
in 1X71). Monetary panics were thought to have been at last retired to the
limbo of serfdom, judicial torture, the death penalty for petty felonies, and
other relics of the barbarous pasl Confidence soon became extravagant
hope — prolific parent of a few successes and many failures. Speculators of
the type of -elf deluded John Law, of Lauriston, and operators of the tribe
of Montague Tigg, of Pall Mall, flung their enchantments broadcast, and
with such effecl that for a few months not a few men seemed so bereaved of
their usually better judgment thai prudence was out of date and even com:
men ial honoi a barren ideality. Projects, from legitimate to lawless, inviting
inexperienced investors, increased like insects, and men's day-dreams and mi-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 213

sound sleep were rilled with visions of sudden wealth. Among the myriad
temptations were lots in new cities of the South and West and in new sub-
urbs of old cities everywhere between tbe poles, farm lands from Assiniboia
to the Arctic circle, mines of all the metals from aluminum and antimony to
yttrium and zirconium and of minerals from anthracite to zinc-blende, rail-
ways across every continent, oil wells, silk without cocoons, — in fine, gold
from seawater, sunbeams from cucumbers, something from nothing.

Most of these several short roads to riches were in effect one: to buy
printed certificates of shareholding and watch the markets hourly for first
indications of coming showers of the world's chief desire. A local annalisl
has told of one who. living but to make his fellowmen quick-process mil-
lionaires, took real estate and personal property in exchange for shares and
came to own one-sixth part of the area of his home village. There were
about a dozen of these guides to Aladdin's cave who were citizens of the
countv, most Of whom were involved with their clients in the collapse of
their undertakings. The period of greatest local interest to investors and
onlookers was 1885-7. The county was not, as a whole, made poverty
stricken, and speculation did not end with the memorable rise and fall of thai
period, but became of less public concern.

MELODRAMA IN COURT.

A tragi-comic affair was said in the next day's Independent to have
taken place at an evening session of the circuit court. March 31, [859. A
man most improbably named "Burorecy" flung a tobacco quid at somebody
within the bar. The shot hit ex-Judge Cowdery's bald seal]) and. ricochetting,
struck Judge Xoggle's left eye. The startled Judge losl his balance and
knocked over a lamp filled with the compound of camphene and alcohol, then
sold as "burning fluid," spilling it- extra-dangerou contents upon Sheriff
Stone and thence upon ex-Sheriff Pern, whose coat tails caught fire. In
the sudden movements of men— tor a wonder, in the dark -the clerk's bai
was nearly broken, the stove-drum and pipe knocked down, and a general
combat followed in which Messrs. Clarke, Farr, Keep. Kellogg, Lyon and
Menzie were more or less battered or ruffled. Oi course, tin- account was
intentionally made extravagant and impossible, M, to confuse the public mind
as to what had actually taken place, — which, most likely, was some breach of
court decorum by two lawyers not named. Tin- date of publication, too,
may have helped to suggesl to reader- thai all this was but the local reporter's
"joke of the season." But FTotchkiss & Leland were to., editorially caution-

214 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

to take such liberty with the names of judges, sheriffs, and lawyers without
some slight foundation of truth for it. The fact that the following Tuesday
was judicial election day may have disposed Xoggle, Keep and Lyon to let
the voters laugh the matter into forgiveness and speedy forget fulness.

EARLY EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS.

Before a system of common schools could 1>e evolved children were as-
sembled in small groups at the larger log dwellings for private instruction.
Many of the teachers were moved by their sense of duty toward those whose
education seemed too likely to be arrested indefinitely — for some of them — in-
effect, to the marring of all later life. Such names of these teachers as have
been preserved from the wreck of the unrecorded past, and are available for
present use, are too few for imposing tabulation. Dates assigned to teachers
at Elkhorn are conjectural, but nearly correct.

In 1837 Mrs. Rebecca A. Vail, in a room over Andrew Ferguson's store,
at Lake Geneva. She was the wife of James W. Vail, an early settler of
East Troy, and afterward lived at Milwaukee.

1839.

Louisa Augier, at East Troy ; daughter of Robert Augier, of that town
Mary S. Brewster (1816-1910), at Spring Prairie, daughter of Deodat
Brewster, of Geneva (Mrs. Edward Pentland).
Julia Dyer, at Delavan.
Mrs. Ladd, of Mukwonago, at Troy.
Juliette Merrick, at Gardner's Prairie; daughter of ('"1. Perez Merrick.

1 840.

Olive Hooker (aged fourteen), at Lafayette: twenty pupils.

Mary S. Brew ster, 1 '.cne\ ,1.

Ruth A. Bunnell, Lafayette.

Lydia ( "an-, Elkhorn.

Mrs. Mary Carter. Darien.

Hannah M. ("lark. Walworth: eighteen dollars for summer term.

Melissa I Cornish, I .agrange.

I"lm M Lewis, Walworth: eighty dollars Tor winter term.

Chester I). Long, Darien. winter term.

Adeline Met Yaeken. Sugar (reek.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 21 5

Theodoras Bailey Northrop, Lafayette; private school, term finished by
Eben Whitcomb.

Sheldon C. Powers, of East Troy, at Whitewater; district school.
Mrs. Adeline M. (Seaver) Carter.
Dr. John Stacy, of and at Lake Geneva.
Airs. Electa (King) Ward, Bloomfield.
Mrs. Moses D. Williams. Walworth.

[841.

Mary S. Brewster, Elkhorn : district school.
Edward Elderkin, Elkhorn.
Sarah Perrin. Lafayette.

1842.

Marietta Chapman, Lafayette; fifteen pupils.
George W. Hoyt, of Rochester, Lafayette; winter term.
Harriet Lyon. Hudson, a daughter of David Lyon.
J. B. Hunt, Whitewater.

I 843-

Adelaide C. Beardsley — at first for religious instruction, afterward a
district teacher at Elkhorn.

Lydia Chapman, Lafayette (Mrs. Edward Winne).
Henry Farrington, Lafayette.
Gracia Ward, Linn.

NOTEWORTHY EVENTS.

Generally, events here noted are not mentioned elsewhere in this work.
Many more of at least equal interest might have been included had the) been
within the narrow range of one person's knowledge or opportunities for find-
ing and placing them in true order of time.

July 10, 1836. — Colonel Phoenix preached to fifteen persons — all the
neighborhood but one family — at Dr. Hememvay's. Four of these professed
religion. Daniel Salisbury prayed, and all sang. Jul) 17th. the Colonel
preached to the Hemenway family, Palmer Gardner, David I 'ran and daugh-
ter, and Mr. Salisbury. Two of these nodded and Doctor Hemenway fell
fast asleep. At the close of service seven more persons came in.

July 4. 1837. — A dance al Othni Beardsley's house, Troy.

2l6 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

June 15. 1839. — William Birge vs. Willard B. Johnson, first suit dock-
eted in Zerah Mead, Esq.'s court, Whitewater. In this year a sovereign's
court, for settling disputed land claims, was assembled at Whitewater. A
territorial road was made from Rochester to Madison, through Spring Prairie,
Troy, Lagrange and Whitewater.

lulv 4. [840. — Celebration at Whitewater. Dr. James McNisih, of
.Geneva, spoke on intemperance and slavery, at William Birge's big barn.
Milwaukee Weekly Sentinel taken by subscribers at Whitewater.

\pril 25, 1842. — A county agricultural society organized.

1843. — A series of revivalist meetings held at Whitewater.

1844. — A good harvest season; wheat, twenty-five bushels per acre. Tax
on Whitewater Hotel eighty-four cents.

August 8, 1845. — Date of Western Slur, Elkhorn, Vol. 1. Xo. 1.

1841;. 1850, 1851. — A series of increasingly had years for farmers, called
the "pink-eye years."

[851.- A flood swept away several dams in the southern towns

[854- An epidemic of Asiatic cholera.

lune — , 1858. Dams at Duck Lake and Lyons bursted by freshet.

1 800. — An exceptional year for wheat crop. The county's surplus esti-
mated at one million bushels. The crop for the state was largest of any
in the union.

April 2, [867. — Willis Clarke, colored, elected town sealer for White-
water.

[873-4. — Organization of Patrons of Husbandry — Grangers — through-
out the county.

Inly 23, 1874. — Destructive hurricane at Lake Geneva.

Augusl — . 1875. — N. 1\. Fairbank, of Chicago, placed six thousand
young hass in Geneva Lake ami built hatcheries.

lanuarv 8, 1881. County clerk sold park feme to Jacob KLetchpaw.

Max [8, [883. \ destroying whirlwind passed over southern towns.

August — , 1889— \ hoard of pension examiners appointed to sit at
Elkhorn Drs. Benoni O. Reynolds, William Henry Hurlbut and George
I lenry Young, Jr.

May <>, [890. Mr. Simmons noted a snowfall at Lake Geneva.

April 26, [893. George Streng, at Troj village, killed a burglar.

fuly 7. 180;. Steamer "Dispatch," with six passengers, sunk in one
hundred and ten feel of water, Geneva I ake, 1>\ a hurricane.

September 1. 1007. — Barbers of the count) raised shaving rates to fif-
teen cents

\la\ 20. [909. Earthquake tremor felt at Elkhorn and elsewhere.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 2IJ

DAIRY INTERESTS.

Statistics of dairy industries for 191 1 show five milk condensing' fac-
tories: H. M. Clark's, at Delavan; Wisconsin Butter and Cheese Company,
at Elkhorn (nearly read}' for work) ; Borden Milk Condensing Company, at
Genoa junction: American Milk Company, at Sharon: Walworth Milk Con-
densing Company, at Walworth. At Lake Beulah is a factory for making
"fancy" cheeses. At Fayetteville, Jacobsville and North Geneva are "skim-
ming stations" of the Wisconsin Butter and Cheese Company.

The several creameries are distributed and named as here shown :

Adams Adams Little Prairie Little Prairie

Bloomfield Bloomfiekl Lyons Lyons

Bowers Bloomfield Centre Lyons Spring Valley

Darien Darien Richmond East Richmond

Darien Fairfield Richmond j. L. Kilkenny Factory

East Delavan East Delavan Richmond Town Line

East Troy East Troy Sharon North Sharon

Elkhorn Springfield Springfield

Wisconsin Butter &- Cheese Co. Spring Prairie Spring Prairie

Geneva Honey Hill Cheese and Creamery Co.

Heart Prairie Heart Prairie Troy Troy Co-operative

Honey Creek Honey Creek Whitewater Marr's

Lake Geneva Whitewater Union Produce Co.

Lake Geneva Milk & Creamery Co. Zenda Foresl < Hen

Dairv production, as reported for 1910, showed 4,754,48] pounds ol
butter, or four and one-half per cent, of the production of sixty-six counties;
and 147.400 pounds of cheese. Walworth was third in creamery production,
and in fifty-six counties was forty-second in cheesemaking. Amount re-
ceived for all dairv products was $1,438,888. The whole number of cows
milked was 26,022.

EARLY BIRTHS.

The following list of earlier births within the county, though not in
each instance verified by reference to public or family record, musl be nearl]
correct. Names marked * are of buys who became soldiers oi the Civil war:
July j, 1836 — Geneva, daughter of lame- Van Slyke, Geneva; died fune,
1856.

2l8 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Sept. 27, 1836 — William Pitt, son of Urban D. Meacham, Troy; died No-
vember 3, 191 1.

June — , 1837 — Henry, son of Israel Williams, Jr., Linn.

July 8, 1837— Clara Anna, daughter of William Bell, Walworth.

Aug. 11, 1837 — Alfred Delavan, son of Salmon Thomas, Darien; died 1896.

Sept. 14, 1837 — Sarah M., daughter of Sylvester G. Smith, Spring Prairie.

Oct. 12, 1837 — Tirzah Amelia, daughter of Luke Taylor, Darien.

Oct. 12, 1837 — Harriet, daughter of Joseph Whitmore, Spring Prairie.

Oct. 12, 1837 — *Darwin K., son of William K. May, Linn.

Nov. — , 1837 — Mahala, daughter of Solomon Harvey, Spring Prairie.

, 1837- — Henry, son of Robert Godfrey, Walworth.

Mar. — , 1838 — A daughter of Ansel A. Hemenway, Spring Prairie.

June 1, 1838 — Henry, son of Oliver Van Yalin, Spring Prairie.

June 24, 1838 — *Silas Wright, son of Harry Tupper, Bloomfield, died 1865.

Sept. 18, 1838 — Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Bell. Lafayette.

Oct. — , 1838 — *Woodbury, son of Perry G. Harrington, Sugar Creek.

Nov. 13, 1838 — Albert Ogden, son of Milo E. Bradley, Geneva.

Nov. 22, 1838 — Phoebe Ann, daughter of Samuel Cole Vaughn, Spring
Prairie.

Dec. 19, 1838 — Oscar D.. son of Roderick Merrick, Spring Prairie.
- — , 1838 — Helen P.. daughter of John Rosenkrans, Sugar Creek.

Jan. 7, 1839 — Le Grand, son of Hollis Latham. Elkhorn.

.Mar. — , 1839 — * James II.. son of Henry Harrison Sterling, Lafayette.

Apr. i, 1839 — Harriet, daughter of William Bell, Walworth, died 1890.

Apr. 23, 1839 — Frances, daughter of Solomon A. Dwinnell, Lafayette.

May 25, 1839 — Wallace, son of Daniel Hartwell, Lafayette; died 1909.

Oct. 8, 1839 — Jane Eli/a. daughter of Benjamin F, Trow. Bloomfield;
died about 1871.

Nov. 18, 1839 Julius ('., son of William Birge, Whitewater.

Jan. 8, 1840- 'I.hi.Im-n Joseph, son of Sylvester G. Smith. Lafayette;
died [905.

Mar. [2, [840— Leroy Williston, son of Austin I.. Merrick. Spring Prairie;
dead.

Ma\ i<>. [840 William James, son of William Bell, Walworth: killed
< Ictober 8, 1862.

July [3, [840 Emily, daughter of Nathaniel Bell, Lafayette.

Wl; 10. [840 "Henry Christopher, son of Christopher Wiswell, Lafayette.
• [840 Wendell Ptilver, son of W. Fletcher Lyon. Hudson.
. (840 Florana Lily, daughter of John Rosenkrans, Sugar Creek.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 2IQ

— , 1840 — Nancy, daughter of Freeborn Welch. Sugar Creek.

Jan. 21, 1841 — Kinner Newcomb, son of Cyrenus X. Hollister, Darien;

died 191 1.
Mar. 29, 1841 — Otis E., son of Samuel Cole Vaughn, Spring Prairie.
Sept. 1. 1841 — *\Yilliam J., son of James Holden. Lagrange.
July 23, 1842 — *Lucius, son of William Bell, Walworth; died [862.
Aug. 2, 1842 — William H.. son of Samuel Allen, Bloomfield.
Nov. 2, 1842 — *Charles Edward, son of Christopher Wiswell, Lafayette;
died 1864.

— , 1842 — Smith D., son of Daniel Hartwell, Lafayette.

Mar. 10, 1843 — August, son of John Bernhardt Wilmer, East Troy.
Nov. I, 1843 — Mary Jane, daughter of Daniel J. Bigelow, Sugar Creek.
. 1843 — Emmet, son of Thomas McKaig, Geneva.

June 28, 1844 — Hiram Sears, son of William Bell, Walworth.

July 8. 1844 — Helen Louise, daughter of William O. Garfield, Elkhorn.

July 14. 1844 — *William Henry, son of John Mayhew and Lucinda Allen.

Nov. 23, 1844 — Emma Pamela, daughter of Edward Elderkin, Elkhorn.

Nov. 24. 1844 — Lucretia May, daughter of Palmer Gardner, Spring Prairie;

died 1865.

Sept. 14. 1845 — George, son of George Gale and Gertrude Young, Elkhorn.

E \KI.V M VRRIAGES.

There were several known instances in which one. first choosing his
claim, made the coming wife's way clear and then went eastward to marry
her. Thus it was with Palmer Gardner, James Holden and Solomon A.
Dwinnell, for examples. Tin- very earliest marriage ceremonies were likely
to have been performed at Milwaukee. Racine, or at some convenient clergy-
man's or magistrate's just across the county line.

Jan. 2^. [837 — Charles Augustus Noyes and Xanc Page- Warren, of Gen-
eva, at Racine.
Sept. 3. [837 — Reuhen Clark and Maria Van Valin, Spring Prairie.

10. [837 -Sylvanus Spoor and Caroline S. Goodrich, Troy.
Nov. — . 1837 — William Bentley and Jane Campbell, Spring Prairie.
Apr. — , 1838 -Hollis Latham and Lemira (Bradle) 1 Lewis, Elkhorn.
Apr. [8, [839 — Elijah Belding and Man James, Richmond.
May 15. 1839 — Bradley B. Plato and Lucretia C. Hawes, Richmond.
May 25, 1839 — Caleb Blodgett and Orinda Jones, Darien
June 4, 1839 — Rev. Jami I I I ndei and \nn Elizabeth Porter.

220

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

June

12, I<

Aug.

7> I

Aug.

25j I

Sept.

5' J

Oct.

3, li

Nov.

JO, I

Dec.

12, I

Dec.

26, 1

Feb.

9- i

Alar.

28, 1.

Mar.

.v. '

May

4. "

July

9, i

July

9, i

Inh

25, .,

July

25, .

Aug.

13. '

Nov.

5> '

Nov.

10, 1

Nov.

Av 1

Nov.

30. 1

1 )ec.

[3. '

Dec.

22 I

Jan.

12, I

Feb.

24, 1

Alar.

[8, 1

\,.r.

• V '

Apr.

II, 1

Apr.

-'/"■ 1

May

3. 1

June

6, 1

July

3. '•

July

8, 1

Aug.

15, .

I l, i

31, 1!

Nov.

1. 1

Dec

15. 1

839 — Christopher Columbus Cheesebro and Maria Johnson, Darien.

839 — George W. Robinson and Adeline Caldwell.

839 — Ransom Sheldon and Maria Theresa Douglass, Walworth.

839 — Asad Dean Williams and Cynthia B. Powers, Whitewater;

839 — Jacob Hamblin and Lucinda Taylor, Lafayette.

839 — Alexander Hervey Bunnell and Mary Dyer. Spring Prairie.

839 — Austin Leonard Merrick and Esther C. Cook. Spring Prairie.

Syj — John Mather and Hannah Stephenson, Sugar Creek.

840 — John Ruddiman and Mary Bunker, Troy.

840 — Lucullus S. Pratt and Lydia Comstock. Darien.

840 — Tompkins Dunlap and Pearley Adams. Geneva.

840 — Porter Bowen and Hannah Older, Darien.

840 — John Martin and Eliza Ann Cheesebro, Darien.

840 — Martin Pollard and Rachel Powers. East Troy.

840 — Dudley W Cook and Nancy Dunlap, Geneva.

840 — Thomas McKaig and Asenath Dunlap. Geneva.

840 — Marcus Moody and Lucy P. Barker.

840- Josiah Burroughs Gleason and Sarah Bacon, Spring Prairie.
840 — Peter Noblet and Lydia A. Baker, Spring Prairie.
840 — Samuel N. Loomer and Huldah L. Loomer, Sugar Creek.
840 -John Mayhew and Lucinda Allen. Spring Prairie.

840 Leland Latch and Harriet A. Estes, Troy.
840 — Benjamin Sweet and Elvira Cornish, Lagrange.
841 — James Fuller and Ruth L. Bunnell, Lafayette.
841— John Powers (of Linn) and Laura Stephen-. Geneva.
841 — Abel Sperry and Eliza Beckwith, East Troy.

841 -Jonathan Patterson Chapin and Sarah Jerrod, Bloomfield.
841— Orison Gray Ewing and Hannah Watson, Lagrange.

841- Samuel Brittain and Eliza Hoyt, Spring Prairie.
■s 1 1 ■ Oliver Salisbury and Emily Cravath. Whitewater.
841 — Alfred B. Weed and Elizabeth Rice, Richmond.
841— James E. Bell and Chine Electa Van Nostrand.

lleuiA Barlow and Emeline La Bar. Delavan.
84] Theodore Benjamin Edwards and Adeline Moore Mc-

< !racken, Sugar 1 "reek
841 [saac Van Wen Severson and Elizabeth Topping, Walworth.
■v 1 1 David S. Elting and Eliza Manwell, Lagrange.
841 Horace 1 oleman and Juliette Merrick. Spring Prairie.
84] William Carter and Adeline Scaver. Darier

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 22 1

Mar. 23, 1842 — Sterling P. Searles and Ellen Dalton, Geneva.

Apr. 16. 1842 — Norman C. Dyer and .Mary Lake. Hudson.

Apr. 24. 1842 — Stephen B. Davis and Esther Newell, Sugar Creek.

Oct. 13. 1842 — Benjamin Goodwin and Clarinda Wait, Hudson.

Oct. 16. 1842 — Jonathan C. Church and Dorcas James, Richmond.

Nov. 24. 1842 — Charles Taylor and Louisa Augier, East Troy.

■ — , 1842 — Lemuel Rood Smith and Melissa Campbell, Hudson.

Jan. 10, 1843 — James O. Eaton and Mary Miranda Dwinnell, Lafayette.
Feb. 8, 1843 — Edwin DeWolf and Elizabeth C. McCracken, Lagrange.
Feb. 9, 1843- -William Birge and Frances Ostrander, Whitewater.

Feb. 12, 1843 — Thomas Worden Hill and Lydia Ferris, Hudson.

Feb. 16, 1843 — Erasmus Darwin Richardson and Alma O. Spa ford. ( leneva.
Sept. 7, 1843 — Albert Ogden and Charlotte Boyce, Elkhorn.

Oct. 4. 1843 — Stephen Steele Barlow and Anna Maria Parsons, Delavan.
Nov. 1, 1843 — Chester Deming Long and Laura Ann Lee, Darien.

Nov. 15. 1843 — Edwin Wallis Meacham and Emeline M. McCracken.

Nov. 16. 1843 — George Washington Dwinnell and Abigail Catherine Wil-
son. Lafayette.

Dec. 21. 1843 — J. Sperry Northrop and Catherine M. Lyon, Hudson.

Dec. 25, 1843 — Edward Elderkin and Mary Martha Beardslev. Elkhorn.

IN MEMORIAM.

The death list, within the years here shown, must fall very far short of
the facts. For the following years the stones and records of cemeteries
partly supply the lack of official registration. Even after cemeteries were
laid out and dedicated many of the dead were buried in small private enclos-
ures, some of which must have been plowed over for a half century, — what-
ever reservation may have been mule at the first sale- of the including
farms. Rain- spon heat down and gra>- and weed- hide unvisited, uncared-for
graves, and white man has not more reverence for the resting places of
strangers of his own race than for those of the conquered or cheated heathen
tribes.

lul\' 3. [837 — Mary E., child of Syl ester G. Wright. Spring P
Sept. 14. 1837 — Mrs. Eliza Cornish, ael 64, Lagrange.
Dec. 25, [837 — William C. Merrick, insane, act. 33, Spring Praii
June it. [838— Olive, wife of Phipps Hartwell, Lafayette
Sept. 6. [838— A child of Ansel A. Hemenway, Spring Prairie.
Nov. 13. [838- Mary] - r), wife of Lucius \.l East Troy.

JJJ

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

21,
28,

13.

Nov. 22,

July i3i
Sept. 19,
Oct.
Oct.

Aug.

Sept.

Oct.

Mar. 14,

May 21,

Mar. 5,

Apr.

Dec.

Jan.

Feb.

Apr.

27,
20,
June 1 1.

June

Jul)

Aug.

Oct.

July

Sept

Oct.

16,

20,

-•5-

26,

Nov. 21,

Dec. 20.

Mar. 3,

Apr. 15,

Apr. t8,

June 21,

July 23,

Aug, 13,

Aug t6,

838 — Simeon Robinson, Troy.

838 — William Casporus. accidentally, Lake Geneva.

830, — Daniel Edwin LaBar, aet. 50. Delavan.

839 — Jotham Newton Baker, aet. 21, Whitewater.

839 — Mary, wife of John Cummings, aet. 58, Walworth.

839 — Amelia J., wife of Henry Frey, aet. 45.

839 — Benjamin Whitcomb, Whitewater.

840 — Col. Samuel Faulkner Phoenix, aet. 44. Delavan.

840 — Apollos Root, Lafayette.

841 — Christopher Columbus Cheesebro, aet. -'4, Darien.

841 — Abby Frances Goodsell, aet. 33, Lake Geneva.

842 — Rosetta, wife of Azor Kinney, aet. 31, Whitewater.

842 — Dorcas (Perry), wife of Thomas James, Richmond.

842 — Mary, widow of Israel Ferris, aet. 85, Whitewater.

843 — George Matthews, aet. 38, Troy.

843 — Henry Phoenix, aet. 50, Delavan.

843 — Sprowell Dean, aet. 48, Troy.

843 — Martha W. (Larrabee), wife of Charles M. Baker, aet. $~.
Lake Geneva.

843 — Jonathan Perry, — with suspicion of poisoning, — Lafayette.

843 — Eli Mood}, aet. 63, Bloomfield.

843-- Harriet ( Wheeler), wife of Daniel Salisbury, Spring Prairie.

843 — Cabin Pike, aet. 41. Whitewater.

844 — Charlotte (Boyce), wife of Albert Ogden, Elkhorn.

S44 — Dr. James Tripp, aet. 49, Whitewater.

N44 lluldah 1 Cornell), wife of Judge John Martio, aet. 49
Spring Prairie.

844 — Benoni Bradway, aet. 52, Delavan.

844 — Philinda, wife of Joseph Hall, aet. 411. Richmond.

845 -Lydia ( Dodge), wife ^i Silas Salisbury, aet. 59, Whitewater.

845 Eliza P. (Gay), wife of Samuel II. Stafford, aet 34. Bloom-
field.

845 — Esther (Cravath 1. wife of Nelson Salisbury, aet. 32, White-
water.

845 -Clementina M., wife <•{ Thomas Harrison, aet. 34, Spring
Prairie.

845 James R. Bruce, aet 31, Darien.

845 — Harriet 1 Boyce), wife of \lvah 11. Johnson, aet. 27, Darien.

845 \ustin II. Wright, aet. 31, East Troy,

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN. 223

Sept. 10, 1845 — Aniasa Allen, aet. 69. Lafayette.

Sept. 18, 1845 — Phoebe (Blakeslee). wife of Elijah Church, aet. 51. Wal-
worth.

Sept. 20, 1845 — Asaph 1'ratt, aet. 55, Whitewater.

Oct. 3. 1845 — Sarah, daughter of Webster Bailey, wife of Whitefield
Bailey. Walworth.

Jan. 2, 1846 — Thomas K. LeBarron. aet. 27, Whitewater.

Jan. 16. 1846 — Jesse Hand, aet. 63, Hudson.

Aug. 13. 1846 — Robert Kennedy Morris, aet. 39, Lagrange.

Sept. 18. 1846 — Harriet C. wife of Charles A. Soper. aet. 26, Darien.

Oct. 14. 184c) — Capt. Israel Williams, aet. ^y. Walworth.

Oct. 17. 1846 — Cynthia, wife of Stephen Knapp, aet. 59, East Troy.

Oct. 20. 1846 — Chanty L.. wife of Loren Stacy, aet. 42, Hudson.

Oct. 24. 1846 — Harriet (Newell), wife of Albert H. Smith, aet. 31, Delavan.

LOSSES BY FIRE.

An incomplete list of more or less destructive fires, though of little
value as history, may help to fix dates of other events associated with them
in men's memories. It is so far from full that a list nearly as long may be
found in the Delavan fire department's record of the last twenty years.
Apr. 14. 1844 — William Birge's house. Whitewater. A child of three years

burned.
May 9. 1844 — "A great lire at Sharon."
Dec. — , 1845 — Andrew Ferguson's store. Geneva.
Dee 10. 1852 — Samuel Tibbets's home, Sugar (.'reek.

— . 1858 — Benjamin !•". Pope's house, Elkhorn.

May 15, 1859 — Patrick O'Brien's house. Darien.

Sept. 22, 1859 — Methodist church. Elkhorn.

Jan. 12. i860 — Alexander II. Bunnell's house, Lafayette.

Jan. 23, i860 — Two newspaper offices and other buildings, Delavan.

Apr. 29, i860 — John A. Farnum's house. North Geneva.

Feb. 26. 1862 — Henry Lord's house, town of Delavan.

Nov. 25. 1862 — Lemuel Webster's house, Sugar ('reek.

Nov. 10. 1866 — Chaffee's planing mill and Thiele's cabinet shop, Whitewater.

Feb. 26, 1867 — Centralia store and other buildings, Elkhorn.

May 31, [867 — Esterlv reaper works, Whitewafc

Nov. 10. 1867 — Several store- in Main street, Whitewater.

Nov. 30. [867 I ole & Hunter'-- pottery. White

224

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Apr.

25. 1

Jan.

29, 1

Feb.

26, 1

Mar.

28, 1

July

2, I,

Aug.

13- I

Aug.

21, I.

Dec.

31- 1

Apr.

5- J

\!,i\

2, I

July

7. I(

Feb.

19, 1

Sept.

16, 1

Mar.

Jan.

7> l

Jan.

10, 1

July

5, r,

Apr.

2 1

Aug.

_'<>, 1

Nov.

18, 1

Nov.

8, 1

Apr.

24, 1

Aug.

5) '

May

[6, 1

Oct.

31, ii

Dec.

6, 1

( let.

31, if

Feb.

:i >. 1

\ug.

28, cj

Sept.

17. >

Oct.

l. [*

Oct.

7. if

July

Aug.

x. 1,

Jan.

1. 1

867 — John Welch's store, Whitewater.

872 — Ouigley's vinegar factory. Lake Geneva.

873 — County House, North Geneva.

874 — Ethan B. Farnum's store. Springfield.

875 — Office of Whitewater Register and other buildings.

875 — Office of Walworth County Liberal, Elkhorn.

875 — Goff's grain house, Delavan village.

875 — Nathan W. Mower's barn, lightning-struck and burned.

875 — Hollis Latham's house, one of the oldest at Elkhorn.

876 — Doane's and other stores, Delavan.

876 — Isaac Way's house, with two children. North Geneva.

876 — Darien Water-cure building.

879 — Episcopal rectory, Elkhorn, badly damaged.

879 — State School for the Deaf, Delavan.

880 — Steamer "Arrow," in Geneva lake.

881 — Benjamin T. Fowler's house and cheese factory. Heart

Prairie.
881 — John ( i. Flack's house and creamery. North Geneva.
881 — Artemas Baird's house, Elkhorn.
884 — Cooler E. Wing's house, Elkhorn
885 — William Harwood's barn. Little Prairie, lightning-struck

and burned.
880 — Public school building, Elkhorn.
888 — Railway passenger house. Elkhorn.
890 — Dynamite explosion and tire at Doane's store, Delavan, liim-

sel 1 and another killed.
890 — George W. Ferris's house, Elkhorn.
891 Mrs. Margaret Casey's house, Elkhorn.

891 The Daniel Botsford house, Elkhorn.
891 — Steamer "< tt\ of Lake Geneva," in Geneva lake.

892 The John Driscoll house, Elkhorn.

893 William K Chambers's house, Lauderdale Lake.
893 — Strow hotel and twelve more stores and shops, Delavan.
893 Field lire, wesl of Elkhorn, threatened the whole villa
893 Kachel's dairy supply building, Elkhorn,
893 Isaac Vloorhouse's dwelling, North Geneva.
No 1 Whiting House. Lake Geneva.
No 1 I [1 tllenbeck cottage, I -auderdale.
896 Barn and cattle on Franklin II. Eames's farm. Lafayette.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 225

Mar. 12, 1896 — Implement Company's store and Lore's laundry. Elkhorn.
Mrs. Lore fatally burned.

Apr. 1, 1896 — Clifford A. Mower's store and Grove creamery. Bowers.

May 10, 1896 — Bumstead's butter factory, Elkhorn.

Mar. 9, 1898 — Frank Lumb's store.

Apr. 25, 1898 — Mrs. Casey's house, Elkhorn.

Sept. 13, 1899 — James F. Jude's hotel, barn, etc., East Troy.

Sept. 22, 1899 — William DeGroff's house, Williams Bay.

Jan. 5. 1900 — Patrick Campbell's bouse. Walworth.

Jan. 31. 1900 — John H. Lauderdale's house, Elkhorn.

May 10, 1900 — Mettowee Hotel, by Delavan lake.

Apr. 30, 1901 — Daniel Carey's barn, etc., Darien.

Nov. 2, 1901 — KLenilworth Inn. Delavan lake.

Feb. 6, 1902 — House on the William Lincoln farm, Spring Prairie.

Apr. 10, 1902 — Ira Enders's bouse and contents, Delavan.

May i, 1902 — W. Allen Barnes' mill, or shop, Elkhorn (once a church).

Oct. 30. 1902 — William. Albert and Julia Wickinson burned with their
house, in Lagrange.

Dec. 22, 1902 — Workshop and instruments at Observatory, near Williams
Bay.

July 28, 1903 — Ernest Hand's barn and cattle. Sugar Creek, lightning-
struck and burned.

July 31; 1903 — James Cutler's barn, Darien, — largest in the county.

Dec. 25, 1903 — Public school house at Lake Geneva.

Feb. 14. 1904 — John W. Hare's store, Walworth village.

Oct. 24, 1904 — Arthur Deist's house. East Troy.

Nov. 16, 1907 — Baptist church, Elkhorn.

Jan. 19, 1908 — Robert Opirz carriage shop, East Troy.

Apr. 4, 1908 — James Baldwin's house, Darien

July 12. 1908 — L. P. Sutter's barn, Delavan, one of largest in county.

Oct. 15, 1908 — House on Eames farm, Lafayette.

July 2, 1909 — Wilbur Lumber Company's mill, Honey Creek.

lulv 28, 1909 — Town Hall, two nd shop, Darien.

Apr. 3. 1910 — House on Joseph Heimbach farm, neai Honey (reek.

Oct. 12. 191 1 — Millard E. Mills's farmhouse, Elkhorn.

(15)

CHAPTER XX.

TOWN OF BLOOM FIELD.

It is not now known why town i north, of range 18 east, was so named.
There was Bloomfield, Essex county, northern Xew Jersey, and there was its
namesake in Ontario county. New York, which is now two towns. East Bloom-
field and West Bloomfield. It does not appear that any considerable number
of settlers came from any of these places. It is not improbable that the early
naming of Bloom prairie led to this appropriate name for the whole town. It
has Linn westward, Lyons northward, Randall and Wheatland, both in Keno-
sha county, eastward, and the Illinois towns of Richmond and Hebron, in
McHenry county, southward. At the primitive division of the county into five
towns the southeastern quarter constituted the town of Geneva. By further
legislation, January 23, 1844, Bloomfield, Hudson and Linn were severally
set off from the parent town for home rule. There is in Waushara county,
too, a township named Bloomfield, whence arises part of the difficulty in
identifying the soldiers of the Civil war for whom credit should be given to
this part of Walworth county.

The surface of the town is as fair to look upon as that of anf part of
the county or of the neighboring counties. Though there is no great extent
of level prairie, its slight unevenness nowhere breaks abruptly into hill coun-
try, nor are there great areas of low-lying swam]). Its wooded sections are
fairly distributed. The timber is mostly oak of the usual varieties, on the
level and high ground, while a tew patches of swamp lands are cov-
ered with tamaracks. These evergreen-bearing swamps are often
or generally peat-bottomed, with blue clay underlying. Modern scien-
tific farming will at some time lead away the water and convert the peat into
fertile soil. The Nippersink, by its three valleys and thosr ,,f its little tribu-
taries, distributes the relatively small marsh surfaces fairly about the town.
Along the Kenoshan border the Towers lake chain in sections 13. _>_(., a small
part of Ryan's lake in section 3, Pell's lake, in sections [5, 22, and a few
glacial pol holes, subtract aboul 928 acres from the total area of the town
That is. official estimate shows -'-\i [2 acres of land surface: but, as the well-
informed leader is aware, owing to surveyor's slight inaccuracies, as well
as tn the convergence northward of all meridian lines, township areas are

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN. 22J

not invariably 23,040 acres of land and water. Bloom prairie reaches out into
Hebron and Linn, about two-thirds way across the town northward and some-
thing like one-third way eastward from the line of Linn; and its primitive
unplowed beauty was in no way deceitful.

The whole town, for the first forty years of its settlement, yielded the
usual fair to full returns in grain and root: but. like its neighboring towns, it
has found its truer value in its adaptation to corn raising and.dairv produc-
tion. Returns for [910 made to the county clerk show these acreages of
improved land: Barley, 301: cabbage. 2<)\ corn, [,339; growing timber.
1,307: hayfield. [,86] : oats. 2.331; potatoes. 103: rye. 74; wheat. 30. Mr.
Sikes shows census of live stock and true values: 3,093 cattle. $02,000; 845
hogs, $9,300; 804 horses, $66,200; two mules, $200; 1,056 sheep, $3,900.
Land values, for town. Si. 73 1.000, at an average of $jH.2j per acre; for
village, 458 acres at $429.47 per acre, whole value $196,700. The valuation
of town and village is 5.01 per cent, of that of the entire county.

The population of Bloomfield, including Genoa Junction, at seven fed-
eral enumerations, was: 1850, Xji); 1800. 1. 140; 1870, [,091; 1880. 1,007;
1890, 1. 197: 1900, 1. 314; mho. 1,485. In i<k>3 the state census gave the
village 710 inhabitants and 856 to the rest of the town. The census of [910
shows a loss of one for the village.

The permanent settlement of the town began late in 1830 with the com-
ing of Henry Kimball and his son. Oramel. who made their claim in section 6.
The elder pioneer brought his wife. Keziah. and such family as they had.
from Otsego county, as soon as he had made for them a home in the solitude
He was born in July. 1783, and died January 31. 1S51. His wife was bom
in 1783 and died August 10. 1852. Oramel was horn May 20. 1815, and
died in the town of Delavan, June 27 ■. 1882. His wife, Lucinda, who outlived
him. was born in 1830.

The earliest coming family was that of Harry and Elizabeth Tupper,
late in 1837. Their son. Silas Wright Tupper, eldest of four children known,
was born in the town. June 24. 1838: enlisted in [86] as a private of Com
pany K. Eighth Infantry: re-enlisted in 1803; was transferred December 28.
[864, to Veteran Reserve Corps; died February 12. [865, in the military
hospital at Indianapolis, '["he other children were Sarah A., born in 1844;
Norman H., born in [846: Ellen A., bom in [848. Harry Tupper died in
California. Elizabeth, daughter of Eli and Dorothj Moody, was horn March
2. 1813; died May 1. [881. John and Levi Moody were her brothers, both
unmarried, and both came among the settlers of [838.

228 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN'.

Among other best remembered settlers from 1837 to 1840, inclusive,
were Hiram and Clarissa Barker, Thomas Buckland. John and Clarissa
Chapin, Jonathan P. and \Y. Densmore Chapin, Charles Dorathy, Timothy H.
Fellows, Carl Freeman, Samuel T. Hatch and wife, Caroline; Jeremiah and
Orpha Jerrod, Andrew and John Michael Kull. William K. May, Welcome J.
Miller, Marcus Moody, Doric C. Porter, Dan and Eliza Rowe, Thomas Peck
Rutenber (1809-1855) and Polly Brazee. his wife; Sebastian and Apollonia
Schurman, Benjamin Franklin Trow (1802-1870) and wife, Aurelia H.
(1814-1890) ; Ebenezer and Mary Tupper, Everton Walker, Jonathan Ward.
Isaac White, Jr.

Within the next eight years came Samuel and William Allen, Thomas
Beeden and wife, Elizabeth ( 1810-1849), Schuyler Besteder ( 1800- 1883)
and wife Eliza Jane (1806-1889), Dewitt C. Blakeman, Morris Wait Blod-
gett, John Brown, J. Sidney Buell, Edward Bundy, Conrad Burget, John
Burns, William Worth Byington, David Ward Carey, Enoch B. and James
B. Carter, Levinus Carver, George H. Christian, Simon Williams Clark,
Robert Cobb, Dudley Wesley Cook. Peter L. Craver, Edward Crowell. Will-
iam Doughten, Delamore Duncan. Alfred W. Dyer, George Woodward Ed-
wards, James Ervin, Andrew Everson, William Faulkner, George Field,
Langdon Filkins, Jason Fobes, John Chesley Ford, Abiel, Joseph and Russell
Fuller, James Grier, Dike W. Hall, Jonah Hanchett, Jr., Daniel P. Handy,
Ephraim and Nathan Harrison, Dewitt C. Hay. Alanson K. Hill, Charles
High, James C. Latour. Valorous 1). Manning, Eli Manor, Stillman Moores,
John II. Nichols, Edwin Ruthven and Enos Hanchett Olden, Ira A. Pell,
Thomas Peters, John Yerwell Petty, Oakley A. Phillips, Preston Brewer
Plumb, Joshua Post, Archibald, David and James Primmer, Solon Read and
Alinda M.. his wife. Lyman Redington, Cyrus and Erastus R. Rugg, Hiram
J. Sawyer. Joseph W. Searles, John Sibley, George Smith. Clark Williams
Spafard, Amos W. and Samuel II Stafford. Aimer Strickland
(1814 1900), Philo C. Taylor. Hamilton Temple, Dr. Oliver S. Tif-
fany. Jeremiah and William < i. Tmesdell, Samuel Ward. Michael VVelden,
William II. Whiting. Nathaniel B. Whittier, William R. Wilkins, Thomas
Wilson. Abner Wing. John Wood, Uanson and Silas P. Wright. \ few of
these may have boughl governmenl land without intending to settle. One
such instance was that of \ndrew Galbraith Miller, for many years judge
of the federal court at Milwaukee, who bought in section [3. A Larger num-
ber went a few years later to other towns, counties, or -tale-; ami a few of
the old settlers died within the next few years.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 229

Neither from public and private records, nor from the memory of aging
men and women of the next following generation, are now to be gathered,
with fair approach to fullness or exactness, many facts as to the earlier lives
and later careers of the fathers and mothers of the county; though something
might yet be done to recover and preserve these "little lines of yesterday,"
were time and much effort to be given to such labor of love. The following
notes include a few names of later comers :

Heman H. Allen (1813-1888) married Caroline 1!. (1816-1892),
daughter of Calvin P. (1798-1861) and Pamela Gay.

Hiram Barker (1801-1884) married Clarissa A. Bronson (1808-1879).

Elizabeth (1810-1849), wife of Thomas Beeden, was buried at Lake
Geneva. Thomas and wife Jane were living in i8(>o.

Adeline, daughter of Thomas Buckland, was married in February, 1841,
by Judge Baker, to William Williams, of McHenry county. This was the
first marriage in Bloomfield.

William Worth Byington (1822-1909), a native of Vermont, married,
first, Adeline, daughter of Abner Wing and Mehetabel Ingham; second, Mrs.
Sarah B. ( Newton) Pier. He was for several years in business at Lake
Geneva, and came in 1876 to Elkhorn, where he died.

Enoch Boutell Carter ( 1819-1902), son of Leonard and Persis, was born
at Leominster, Massachusetts. Charlotte | 1824-1910) was daughter of Will-
iam Vincent and Lydia Wilcox. Enoch married in 1845.

Jonathan Patterson Chapin, son of John and Clarissa, married, March
18, 1 841, Sarah, daughter of Jeremiah and Orpha Jerrod.

Samuel Rogers Darrow 1 1809 [89] ) was a native of Herkimer county.
New York.

Charles Dorathy (1811-1893), son of Joseph, came in 1840 to Bloom-
field. His first wife was Mary, daughter of Ebenezer and Mary Tupper. His
second wife was Eliza Kimball.

Delamore Duncan, son of William and wife. Ruth Gilmore, was a broth-
er-in-law of Timothy II. bellows.

George Field married Emma, daughter of Abiel Fellows and Dorcas
Hopkins.

Nathan Harrison was born in 1801 and died in [883. Anna, his wife,
was born in 1804 and died in 1887.

Samuel Tucker Hatch 1 [802-1882), son of I larman 1 whose wife was
named Tucker), came in [840 to section 12. His first wife was named Caro-
line; his second was Mrs. Lucy Small. It is nol known that he was of the
same family as others of his name, in DeLv.ui. Geneva, Linn, or elsewhere.

22,0

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Charles High (1809-1887) was probably son of Charles and Christine,
of Washington county, New York. He came in 1841 to section 30, and
married Nancy B. Rolfe, of Milwaukee. His farm was one of the largest
and best in the town.

Alanson King Hill (1813-1894) was born at Canton, New York, and
died at Lake Geneva. His wife was Nancy Agnes Wellwood.

There was in Bloomfield, long ago, and perhaps is yet, a second Kimball
family, of German origin. From tombstones it is inferred that the name
was Kimpel, and changed by local pronunciation to the more familiar form.
Carl R, of this family ( 1814-1891 ). had wife. Anna E. ( 1826-1885).

James C. Latour (1795- 1883) was born in New York (city). He came
with wife. Christina (1798-1856), to sections 3, 10.

John Loveland (1810-1886) was born at Middletown, Connecticut. He
came in 1841 with wife, Elizabeth Latour ( 1X14-1906).

Eli Manor ( i8_'_'-i885) was son of Joseph and Louisa Lucia Manor
( Tliis name is spoken "Man-ore." ). lie built the only hotel now at the Junc-
tion.

Eli Moody (1780-1843) and wife Dorothy (1784-1847). Of their
known children. Elizabeth was Mrs. Harry Tupper; Levi (1808-1890) died
unmarried; John died October 27, 1802, in naval hospital at Mound City.
Illinois, seemingly in gunboat service. Alfred ( [815-1881) may have been
of Eli's family.

Stillman Moores bought land 111 sections 14, -'3. His wife, Mary 1 1S07-
1880), was daughter of William and Susannah Coleman.

Enos Hanchett Olden (born iN_>_>) came about [842 to section 15, and
soon afterward married Julia A. Gregg (horn [826). Their farm, now
Elisha T. Hibhard's. has been found ralhrr remarkably adapted to fruit-
raising.

Ira A. Pell ( [800-187] ). namesake of the lakelet in section 15. married
Mary I.. ( [816-1883), daughter of Ephraim and Alida Farmer.

Otis I'.. Phillips ( [798-185 I and wife Olive ( (800-1865) were buried
at Lake Geneva, lie may have been son or brother of Oakley A. Phillips,
who may have been a non-resident buyer in section 31.

lames Primmer (horn [816) and wife Hannah (burn iS_>i). daughter
uf Philip and Rebecca Shaver, were natives of Rensselaer county. They came
tn section 7.

fohn Siblej was one of the founders "i the Episcopal society. Mis
son. Charles W. (county clerk [853-7), married Lucy, daughter uf Abiel
Fell 'w s and I >i ireas I \< ipkins,

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. _>3 I

Jane Eliza Trow, daughter of Benjamin F. and Aurelia II., first girl
born in the town — October 8, 1839— lived to marrv and died about 1X71.

Everton Walker (born 1810) and wife Susan (born 1814) came to
section 4 in 1839. They left the state later than [860.

Jonathan Ward (1814-1872) married Electa King (1820-1894) and
came to section 5 in 1837. In [860 they had five children. They were buried
at Lake Geneva. Airs. Ward seems to have become Mrs. Adams.

Silas P. Wright (1815-1896) was horn near Sackett's Harbor; lived
on section 20, Bloomfield : died at Lake Geneva. Mary, his wife, was born
in 1816.

Bloomfield centre — not Centre — was but a convenient way of denoting
the site of an early school house, a half-mile south of the town-centre, on the
diagonal road from Geneva to Richmond (or, a little later, to Genoa). This
house for long served as a meeting place of religious gatherings and early-
societies, and for other township purposes. The first school was taught in
1840 by Mrs. Electa (King) Ward, in section 6, at a house built for her
use as a private school. There is now a district school house on her husband's
farm, at the center of section 5. There are at present in the town (the village
not included) six school districts, of which two are joint districts — No. 6 with
Lyons; Xo. 8 with Randall, in Kenosha county.

The whole number of soldiers of the Civil war whose service was credited
to Bloomfield was one hundred thirty-one. If not all of these were really
residents of the town the non-residents were fairly offset by the men of
Bloomfield who were enrolled for other towns. Her volunteers turned <>ut
promptly in the first two years, and her citizens voted liberal bounties in order
to fill later calls for troops. The town was well represented in the Fourth
Infantry-Cavalry and the Eighth and Twenty-second Infantry, and by smaller
numbers in many other commands. Company K. Eighth Infantry, the Live
Eagle regiment, was credited with thirt) six batik'.- and skirmishes, in six
states. Its orderly sergeant. Theodore \. Fellows, returned as its third cap-
tain, after exactly four years of constantly active service.

The town and village records are quite full and generall) legible. The
clerks have usually been chosen for their fitness, and have often been re-
elected. The bonk- tor 1X50 arc a- easily read as printed script. The clerk
for that year was Mr. Youlen, a young farmer who had at that time a work
ing partnership with David \\ . Carey, and whom nobody but the latter's son,
Julian M. Carey, seems now to remember. The official list for the town of
Bloomfield is as follow - :

232

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

CHAIRMEN OF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.

William K. May 1844

Cyrus Rugg 1845, '47- '49

'56-58, "65

Timothy Hopkins Fellows

1846. '68, '73

Samuel Allen 1848

David Ward Carey 1850

Heman C. Stewart 1851

Schuyler Ward Benson

1852. '74. '75

William Densmore Chapin

1853-55, '60, '61, '63. '64, '81

Amos Wagman Stafford

1859, '66, '67, '69. '72

Adolph Freeman 1862

Alfred H. Abell 1876-79

Andrew Kull. Jr 1880, '82-84

George Rue Allen 1885-97

Russell Holmes 1898- 1900

Thomas H. Grier 1901. '02

Charles W. Forbes 1903

John H. Hoffman I904-'o5

Elijah T. Hibbard 1906-08

Clifton S. Arnold 1909

Frederick C. Paskie, res 1910, '11

Elijah T. Hibbard. acting 191 1

Elijah T. Hibbard, elected 1912

ASSOCIATE SUPERVISORS.

Alfred II. Abell 1863, '74. '7-^

James Grier Allen 1904

William II. Allen 1873. '77-'8o

Thomas Beeden 1847. 40

Bryanl S. Benson r873

Schuyler Ward Benson 1840. '51

Sidne) Buell 1866, '8]

William Ira Buell 1 867-72, '82-84

Enoch Boutell Carter

[846-47, '51, '52, '60, '70. '71

John Chapin 1844

Robert Cobb 1861, '62, '65

Timothy Hopkins Fellows

[856, '57, '65
Charles \V. Forbes [887, 1901, '02

Daniel Forbes 1881

William Forbes 1850. '74. '7^

Andrew \V. Foster... [888 93

Adolph Freeman 1861. '63

Joseph Fuller 1854, '55

Frederick Gleason 1885, '86, '98

Andrew W. Hafs IQOS- °6

Orville X. Harrison 1880. '82-'84

Elijah T. Hibbard__i890, '99, 1900

Frederick Henning 1891-93

John Huffman 1804. '98-1903

Michael Hoffman 1885-88

Richard R. Hoffman 1910-12

Russell Holmes 1S05-07

Clifton S. Arnold [866-r68

Seth L. Banks 1848

Dewitl C Blakeman 1853-4

William Irish [848

Elijah Jewett 1852

William G. Katzenberger 1909-12

Dr. Selvey Kidder [876-79

Oramel Kimball [864

William Kimball 1804-07

\11drew Kull, |r. I9°5

Edwin 0. Kull 1889

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

'■33

Jacob Maas 1904

James C. Merritt i860

Welcome Joseph Miller 1868-69

Daniel T. Moores ^903

Enos Hanchett Olden 1867

Lawrence Palmitier 1853

Frederick C. Paskie 1907-09

Morris Read 1866

Solon Reed 1&59- '72

Cyrus Rugg 1844

Hiram J. Sawyer 1850

Amos Wagman Stafford

1845-46, '58, '64

Heman J. Stewart 1850

Everton Walker 1856

Edwin Woodman 1857-58

Ira Williams 1855, '62

Samuel J. Wilson . 1876

TOWN CLERKS.

Lyman Redington (2 mos.) 1844

William Densmore Chapin 1844

Jason Fobes ^45

George Field 1846-47

Robert Moores 1848

Samuel Allen 1849

William Youlen 1850

James S. Stilson 1851- '66

Charles W. Sibley 1852, '63

William Worth Byington 1853-57

Wells W. Belden 1858

George C. Perry 1859-61

Ichabod A. Hart 1862

*Charles Augustus Noyes, Jr.,

1864-65

* Frederick Fernald 1867-69,

1872-75, 1878-9

Adam C. Fowler 1870

William T. Beeden 1871

Julian Marcellus Carey 1876-77

Andrew W. Foster 1880-84

Charles Derby Blanke 1885-1901

Clifton S. Arnold 1902-04

John Deignan 1905-10

Andrew W. Hafs 1910-12

Mr. Deignan having resigned in 1910, Mr. Hafs was appointed for that

\ear.

TOWN TREASURER.

John Wood 1844-45

William Densmore Chapin__ 1N41 1 [g

Dewitt C. Blakeman 1850

William Worth Byington 1851-52

Eddy Cole 1853-54

John Chapin 1855

John Read 1856

Joseph fuller 1857

Homer field [858

Samuel R. Harrow 1859

Solon Reed 1860-62, '64

Ira Williams 1863

Oramel Kimball [865

Charles Augustus Noyes - [866-68

Vbner Fuller [869-70

David B. Maine 1871-1885

William II. Allen 1886-189]

Elijah T. Hibbard 1892. 1902

234 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

John Hubbard Miller 1893-95 Richard R. Hoffman 1904-08

Frank Marshall Miller 1896-99 Henry Kimball 1909

H. Albert Gibbs 1900-01 Doric W. Forbes 1910-11

Alfred Darling 1903 Charles Gifford 1912

A few assessors are named between 1855 and 1 * > 1 1 : William Besteder,
1855-6; Donald Forbes, 1881-91: Bryant T. Benson, 1882 and 1908-11;
George R. Allen. 1883-4; Alfred Darling, 1892; Edwin O. Kull, 1894-1906;
Frank A. Grout, 1907, — whence it appears that sometimes there were two
assessors.

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

lleman li. Allen 1864 Andrew Kull, |r 1874, '76

Clifton S. Arnold 1905, '07 Edwin O. Kull 1892

Rasmus H. Bjerning 1910 David B. Maine 1877-85

Dewitt C. Blakeman 1859, '61 John Moore 1888, '90, 1900

Milton B. Carey 1875 William C. Moores, v 1884

Doric W. Forbes 1908 Frederick C. Paskie, v !9°9

Charles R. Foster__ 1864-75, 1880-93 George C. Perry 1859-63

Thomas H. drier 1892 Charles H. Prouty 1898

Frederick A. Grout, v 1902 Hugh Reed 1868

Andrew W. Hafs, v. v 1909. 'to Frederick C. Richardson, v 1895

Nathan Harrison 1868-75. '/6-83 Henry O. Roberts.- 1884-87

[chabod A. Hart i860 Dan Rowe 1843, '65

Elijah T. Hibbard 95v., '98, Amos Wagman Stafford 1870

IOOT. [903, '04, '10 James S. Stilson 1866

Horace Johnson 1862. '69 William E. Trow 88 v., 91-97

Louis \. Kimball [893, '95 Joel Washburn i860

These dates are usually those of the several elections for a term of two
years; but two dates connected by a dash indicate beginnning and end of
service. Vacancies, rilled for one year, are shown by letter "v."' Only names
of justices who tiled with the clerk of the court certificates of their election
are shown, because of the uncertainty as to winch of others elected took the
oath of office.

GENOA J UNCI CON .

Nature drew no line between the sovereignties of Illinois and Wisconsin,

The fair and fertile fields of Bloomfield, I. inn. Walworth, and Sharon
stretch 1 . 1 1 southward into the older state. Tin- village of Richmond is about

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 235

two miles below the point at which the Nippersink abandons Wisconsin, little-
more than a stone's throw from the state line. Its slightly earlier settlement
and its immediate growth as a center of local trade, with similar development
at the foot of Geneva lake, placed churches, schools, mills, shops and stores
within fairly convenient reach of the earlier-coming fanners of Bloom-
held, and thus retarded village platting in that town.

In or about 1850 James F. Dickerson came to improve the null-site and
to lay out a village, which was named Genoa, a little below the united Nip-
persink and on its left bank, in section 35, within a quarter-mile of the state
line. Its railway distances are: From Chicago, jj.i, miles; from Richmond,
1.3 miles; from Lake Geneva, H.j miles; from Kenosha, jj.^ miles; from
Harvard. 16.8 miles. All its railway connections are by two intersecting
Chicago & Northwestern lines. In no long time arose occasional confusion
in the mail service because of another Genoa in DeKalb county. Illinois.
To avoid this the word "Junction'' was added to the village name, and now
Genoa postoffice is in Vernon count}, Wisconsin. The territorial road from
Kenosha to Beloit passed through the present village plat, within the limits
of which it is named Walworth street. The village lies on slightly uneven
ground, giving easy ascents and ready drainage. Its appearance as a whole
and in detail is clean and homelike, its roadways hard and smooth, and its
cement walks are now measurable in miles. In the modern ways of city life
this village may be regarded as suburban — directly and quickly reached from
Chicago by four daily trains.

Charles A. Noyes bought in [853 a share in the mill property, and also
built the Cottage Inn, to which the Manor House succeeded in 1 87 1 and
remains as the Junction House. .Mr. Dickerson had died, and Adolph Free-
man had married his widow and for a short time controlled the mill manage-
ment. Mr. Noyes was followed by Thomas Carter and A. J. Goin, from
whom the mill passed to John Alexander Pierce, of Millard, and Charles
Covell, and in later succession to John Albert Pierce, the Genoa Junction
1 ompany, ami Julian M. Carey. Within a few years Mr. Care) turned the
water-power to its presenl use, that of supplying the village with electric
light. The Pierces were father and son. and their ownership of the mill
was in more than one way memorable.

Welcome J. Miller came in [850 from Kenosha, where be had well
learned his business, and began work as a maker of carriages and farm
wagon- of such quality and workmanlike finish as to secure a wide market
for his steadily increasing production. IN- two older boys, as they grew to
manhood, became hi- partners, and for long the Miller wagon made the linn

236 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

and the village famous. Modern conditions of manufacture and sale do
not lung permit the several rivalries of small establishments. Mr. Miller
died m [885 and the sons have been forced into more humbly useful repair-
ing and smith-work.

The Borden Condensed Milk Company, whose products reach the fron-
tiers of civilization, has here one of its large and fully ecmipped factories,
handling the local supply of milk to the extent of forty thousand pounds
daily, and making Genoa Junction an important shipping station.

H. Albert Gibbs has here an ice cream factory, the product of which
finds its market in this and several near-lying counties. His business seems
likelv to be permanent, and is an important addition to the village enter-
prises.

The yearly production, and shipment by railway, of cabbages has be-
come a noticeable feature of local industry.

The earliest postoftice here was named Bloomheld, and was successively
named Genoa and Genoa Junction. There is no local record of postmasters
in their order of service and with beginning of each one's term of ofhce. but
the following list is as full and accurate as men's memories now supply:
James S. Stilson, Schuyler W. Benson. Julian M. Carey, 1878; Albert E.
Simons, 1885; John Coppersmith, 1889; Lanson G. Deignan, 1893; Dexter
B. Holton; Julian Marcellus Carey, 1897: Charles H. Prouty, [908.

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.

Rev. Lemuel Hall, a pioneer clergyman then of Geneva, came April 5,
[846, in ln-lp Rev. Leonard Rogers in the work of organizing a Congrega-
tional society, with twelve members, at the center school house. About [852
its meeting place was fixed at Genoa. In the pastorate of .Mr. Caldwell a
sightly and convenient church was built at Park and Freeman streets at
a cost (with bell) of nearly five thousand dollars. This was in 1804-^. Ad-
dition was made in [892 for Sunday school room and parlors. The present
membership is forty-four persons. Dr. Benjamin J. Hill has been clerk of
the society for more years than Ik1 can tell without reference to church record.
Mis nearesl predecessor was Mrs. Asa C. Rowe. Mrs. Frances Bundy, one
of the rarhesi members, is yet living, near the village, in her eighty-sixth

year, her mind clear and tilled with memories of younger III nlield. The

succession of pastors is: Leonard Rogers, 184(1: J. V. Downs; Christopher
Columbus Caldwell, 1854: Francis J. Douglas, [869; Charles II. Fraser, [883;
Hiram \\ . Harbaugh, [886; Henrj < >. Spelman, [890; Bryant C. Preston,
189J; James I!. Orr (three months), [893; Herbert V Kerns, [893; Joseph

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 237

W. Helmer, 1895; Frank B. Hicks, 1897; Alexander E. Cutler, 1904; Benja-
min F. Ray; Frank Atkinson; Charles Parmiter, 1910. There was now and
then an interregnum in this pastoral succession — generally not more than of
one year's length.

It has been told as a fact of town history that the first religious society
organized was by twelve Methodists, at the center school house, in 1X41.
However this may have been, except for prayer meetings at convenient
houses, the members of this denomination attended church at Richmond until
1887. In that year they met at Spice's Hall, in Genoa Junction, Rev. Daniel
Cross holding services. In the next year they built a Sunday school room
with "supper room" above. This was in the pastorate of Rev. Air. Smith.
In 1894 the main building was finished and dedicated, with Rev. Frank C.
Richardson as pastor.

Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper held Episcopal service in August. 1X4S, at
Air. Whiting's house in section 32, administered communion to members of
the Whiting and Sibley families, and a Whiting daughter. The parish of the
Holy Communion was organized in October with William H. Whiting and
John Sibley as wardens and Samuel Allen. Robert Moore, Charles W. Sibley
and Royal Sikes as vestrymen. Rev. .Messrs. McNamara, Ludlum, Peters
and Studley were successively rectors of this parish, and a few years later
the rectors at Lake Geneva came over monthly. In the absences of clerical
attendance, as at present, the service is read by lay readers. Mr. Whiting
built a chapel in 1849 on section 29, for temporary use; but it lias nol yet been
replaced by a more permanent building.

The Evangelical Lutheran society was organized in [881, its mem-
bership including eight families. It owns a lot in the northern pari of tin-
village, but holds its services in alternate afternoons at the Congregational
church Its pastorate is suplied from Lake Geneva or Slade's Corners, lis
present membership is about forty families.

The German Methodist societj was formed in [885, in connection with
the church at Bristol, Kenosha county. It holds no property, but uses the
Methodist church fortnightly in summer and once in three weeks in winter
It- membership is .about twenty-five.

I om MERC! \1 [NTERESTS.

The State Bank of Genoa [unction was organized in [904 with lliel Al.
Holton as president, John Moore as vice-president, Thomas Moore as cashier,
and six stockholders besides. The capital was five thousand dollars. This
bank seems to have made but one yearly report.

238 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Chester A. Stone had been for some time in business at the village as a
private banker. In 1904 he found it practicable and advisable to bring his
business under statutory provisions. With thirty-five other stockholders he
organized the Citizens State Bank, with twelve thousand dollars capital,
Tames Crier Alien as president. Hoxie W. Smith as vice-president, and him-
self as cashier. Most of these stockholders are men of the town and village,
and of Lake Ceneva.

About 1889 Capt. Luther Cranger Riggs, soldier, poet and editor, began
to publish tlic Genoa Junction Journal, as a thus localized edition of his paper
at Richmond. lie was one of the order of cry-aloud, spare-not country editors,
and seemed to think that peace is dear at any price and too inglorious for an
ex-centurion. His militant editorship was regarded as vigorous and racy, and
it was rather overcharged with his own personality. His paper leaned to-
ward prohibitionism and the abolition of minor evils. He suffered some
loss from a lawless entry upon his premises at Richmond, with attendant
malicious mischief, as. some dumping of type cases or newspaper forms into
the Nippersink. His troubled career ended with his death, October 31, 1891.
1 le was then aged about fifty years.

In [900 a new paper, the Times, began under ownership of Hurley B.
Begun, followed about [902 by Charles F. Dixon; in 11)03 '>>' A. M. Spence
(but initials are doubtful); in [903 by Chauncey A. Swenson; in [909 by
Morris B. Rice; in 191 1 by Swenson F. Foster, by whom it was discontinued
about the end of the year.

VILLAGE ORGANIZATION.

At an election held July 23, [901, the citizens of Genoa Junction ac-
cepted a village charter by vote of 1 2j to 107. This was on the petition of
Dr. Benjamin J. Bill, Julian M. Carey, Eli E. Manor, John Moore. Edward
Miller and Chester A. Stone. William Child, county surveyor, established
the village boundaries and made a plat for record at Elkhorn. The first vil-
lage board was made up of Russell Holmes as president, with Dr. Benjamin |.
Bill, Charles 1). Cibbs. George Gookin, H. Frederick Henning, Eli E. Manor.
Edward Miller, as trustees; Charles D. Blanke as clerk. II. Allien Gibbs as
treasurer, and Julian M. Carey as member of the county board Mr. Holmes
is still president, having been relieved only in [904 and 1910. in which years
John H. Miller was chosen. Mr. Blanke's service as clerk has continued with-
out an interval. The later treasurers elected were Clarence A. Graves in
[902, Charles II. Prouty in 1906, Lanson G. Deignan in [908, \. Willis Hyde

WALW0RTI1 COUNTY. WISCONSIN. 239

1809. Joseph W. Westlake became assessor in 1902, and William E. Trow in
1903 and is still in service. Mr. Carey served four years on the county
board, followed in 1905 by Capt. Theodore A. Fellows, who served till his
death. February 10, 191 2; and in April Mr. Carey was called back. Dr. Bill
has been and is vet health officer.

CHAPTER XXI.

TOWN AND VILLAGE OF DARIEN.

The land area of the township of Darien is given officially as 22,700
acres, leaving 340 acres (surveyor's errors excepted) under water. Turtle
creek comes out of Delavan and flows in the devious way of prairie streams
for more than eight miles to reach the line of Bradford, in the next county,
making a sigmoid flexure through sections 13, 12, 11, 10, 15, 16, 21, 17, 18,
its exit from Darien nearly due west from its entrance. Its tributaries are
few and small, the two larger ones coming out of Sharon, crossing sections
32 and 31 near Allen Grove and meeting the Turtle beyond the county line.
The wooded areas were greatest in sections 3, 4, 9. The smaller forests and
groves are so distributed through the town as to divide the open country into
several locally named prairies, as Blooming, Hazel, Ridge, Rock, and Turtle.
Rock prairie, in the northwestern sections, reaches into neighboring towns,
and is one of the most fertile in the state.

STATISTICS.

County clerk's tables for lyio show a total land value of $2,203,700,
of which $104,400 is the estimate for two unincorporated villages. Average
value per acre, $89.83. Acreages of crops: Apple trees, i 14; barley, 4,095;
beets, 20; corn, 5,564; growing timber, 2,047; hayfield, 3,785 ; oats, 1.535;
rye, 126; wheat, 200; no potatoes. Numbers and values of live stock: 2,586
cattle, $67,200; 1,355 hogs. $13,600; 731 horses, $55,400; 9 mules, $610;
864 sheep, $2,600. Automobiles, 14. The population, at seven federal enum-
erations, was: 1850, 1,013; iSl1". [,590; 1870, 1,583: 1880, 1,394: [890,
1,218; 1900, 1.371 ; 1910, 1, 241).

Town 2 north, range 15 cast, was at first included in the town of Dela-
van, from which it was detached by legislative action January 6, 1 S40, and
named from Darien. Genesee county, New York, the last previous home of
several settlers of influence in the new community. Elijah Belding and Chris-
topher C. Chcsebrough came in April, 1837, apparently by way of the Phoe-
nix settlement, making claims respectively in sections 1 1 and 14. Both broke
land and planted a few acres, and Mr. Chesebrough built a house, though he

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 24T

had not yet married. Near the end of May, Joseph and Arthur \V. Maxson
followed Turtle vale to section 18, where they found passable water power,
on which, four years later, they built a sawmill and thirteen years later a
gristmill. In June William H. Moore came to section 15. and Rev. Hiram
Alvah Kingsley to section 19. Mr. Moore raised, threshed, ground and ate
the first grain crop raised in Darien. John Bruce, Cyrus and John Lippit,
Salmon and Trumbull D. Thomas came, the first to section 22, the Lippits to
section 35, Salmon Thomas to section 12, his brother to section 1. August
11, 1837, Alfred Delavan Thomas, son of Salmon, was born to other use-
fulness than hoeing corn or milking cows.

Within the next four years came Orange \V. and William T. Carter,
Ebenezer and Jabez B. Chesebrough, John Curtis, Leander Dodge, Charles
Ellsworth, Jared Fox, Jasper Griggs, Cyrenus N., Kinner, Lemuel and Will-
iam Hollister, Robert A. Houston. Alvah B., Asher and Hiram A. Johnson,
Loren K. and Lyman Jones, Robert Law-son, Hugh and Chester D. Long,
Elisha McCollister, William Gregory Mayhew, Amos Older, Lyman H.
Seaver, Hiram A. Stone, John Valentine Walker, John and Joseph R. Wil-
kins, Archibald Woodard, Minthorn Woodhull.

Before the new town was seven years old it received these accessions to
its citizenship: Oscar Anderson, Hiram Babcock, Eusebius Barwell, Levi
Beedle, Dearborn Blake, Levi Blakeman, Willard A. Blanchard, Jeremiah
Bradway, Philander Brainerd, Lorenzo Carter, John Mudgett Chase, Wash-
ington Chesebrough, John Clague, George Clapper. Nicholas S. Comstock,
John B. and Richard Cook. George Cotton, Horace Croswell, Josiah and
Samuel W. Dodge, James Dudley, Cornelius Dykeman, Walter P. Flanders,
Asa Foster, Samuel Fowle, Henry Frey, Alexander and James Gallup, Thomas
George, Homer B. Greenman, Samuel K. Gregory, John Haskell. Silas llaskin,
John B. Hastings, Robert Hutchinson, Amos Ives, Parley W. fones, Peter
M. K.eeler. Eli and Henry King, John Sardine Kingsley. Stephen Kinney.
Timothy Knapp, S. Rees LaBar, Ira P. Larnard, Zebulon T. Lee, David
Lindsey, James McCay, Newton McGraw, Stephen and Thomas M. Mc
Hugh, Moses McKee, Thomas M. and William Martin. Alfred A. Mott,
Joseph Edward Newberry, Jacob and John N. Niskern, Edson P.. ami Will-
iam Older, Hiram Onderdonk, Amos Otis, Joshua Parish, Nicholas Perry,
Amasa T. and Ovid Reed. John Reinhardt, Lucius Relyea, Erastus Rood,
Charles F. and James A. Scofield, John Woodard Seaver, John Martin Sher-
man. William H. Shimmins, Henry Smith. Charles I'. Soper, Joseph Murray
Stihvell, Randall Stone. Edwin and Luke Taylor, Ezekiel Trip]), Isaac Vail,
(16)

242 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Abraham and Cornelius Veeder, Josiah Vrooman, George Walker, Alfred
Watrous, Rial N. Weed, Carey Welch, Victor Moreau Wheeler, Lewis Wil-
kinson,-John Williams, Ebenezer and John Woodard.

Christopher Columbus Chesebro, son of Ebenezer and Anna, was born
in Albany county, November 13, 1S16; died at Darien March 14. 1841. He
married Maria Johnson, June 12, 1839.

Jabez Brooks Chesebro (1811-1881), eldest son of Ebenezer, married
Mary Simpson and had six children.

Nelson W. Cole (1818-1903) married Harriet (1832-1900), daughter
of Martin and Esther Post.

Asa Foster (1807-1857) bought land in sections 22. 30. He married
Lucy (1810-1881), daughter of Orange Carter and Elizabeth Rumsey.

Henry Frey (1785-1865) and wife, Amelia J. (1794-1839), must have
been among the earliest settlers, since Mrs. Frey's tombstone is in the village
burial ground. Her death, then, is the earliest found in the town. Mr. Frey
was for some years postmaster, and was an active business man. His son,
Philip R. Frey, was first railway station agent at Darien, and was transferred
to the station at Corliss about 1870.

James Gale (1821-1884) married Phoebe Ann (1826-1903), daughter
of Frederick Rosekrans and Desire Braman.

John Brooks Hastings (1815-1902) was born at Pembroke, New York;
came to Darien in 1843; married in 1846 Hannah Maria (1825-1882),
daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth Reed.

Asher Johnson (1 791-1873) came from Steuben county, New York;
bought land in sections 4, 17, 19, 20. His wife was Amy Smith (1793-1882).
Sons, Alvah B., Hiram A., John J., and Samuel, and daughter Celeste (Mrs.
Joseph R. Wilkins).

Alvah B. Johnson, son of Asher (1812-1899), married, first, Hannah
Boyce (1818-1845) • second, Jane P. Kerns.

Zebulon Taylor Lee (1801-1858), son of Ouartus Lee and Keziah John-
son, was In nil at Willington, Connecticut, and was buried at Allen Grove.
He married Sabra (1804-1883), daughter of Orange and Elizabeth Carter.
He bought land in section 32. Of his children were Amelia Josephine (Mrs.
Dr. John Dickson). Laura Ann (Mrs. Chester IX Long), Almirette (Mrs.
William II. Babcock).

Cyrus Lippit (1810-1888). son of Hezekiah and Susan, came from
I attaraugus county to section 35 in 1838, having married in [832, with his
wife Lydia ( 1810-1881), sister of John Bruce. She was born at Phelps, Xew
York, Her sister Susan was ^Irs William Phoenix.

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN. 243

Ovid Reed (1820-1890), son of Alexander and Elizabeth, born in
Darien, New York; married Jane M. Seaver, daughter of Joseph W. and
Mary.

Erastus Rood 1 [816-1900) married Hannah M. | [826-19P0), daughter
of John and Susan Wilkins.

Charles P. Soper (1821-1879), son of Asahel and Clarissa, married,
first. Harriet C. ( 1820- 1846) ; married, second, in 1N4N. Wealthy I. Gallup
1 [823-1910). Asahel ( 1790-1846) and Clarissa (1793-1869) died at Darien.
They were from central New York.

Salmon Thomas (1 801 -1887) and wife, Elizabeth Stowell (1816-1893),
removed to Delavan village.

Trumbull Dorrance Thomas (1806-1889) and wife, Mary Jane (1818-
1885), also removed to Delavan. He was Salmon's brother.

John Wilkins (1872-1868) and wife, Susan f 1 794-1851 ) , came from
New Jersey with sons James (1805-1900) and Joseph Rusling (1817-1907).
James married Hannah Ferguson ( 1806-1878). Joseph Rusling Wilkins
married Celeste (1818-1891), daughter of Asher Johnson.

John Williams, Jr. ( 1 798-1877), married Ann, daughter of Orange and
Elizabeth Carter. A son. Deloss (1824-1907), married Lydia M. Phelps.

EARLY GROWTH.

In 1837 John Bruce built a house near the road to Beloit at the central
part of section 27. This modest mansion also served as a wayside inn, until
[843, when his son, James R. Bruce, built a hotel with such substantial
frame and workmanship that it still serves the purpose of a public house.
Henry Frey built a store in 1844, and filled it with a large stock of goods.
A postoffice had been established there in 1839. A hamlet grew slowly about
these buildings until 1856, in which year Mr. Frey, Hiram A. Stone and
Edward Topping platted the village of Darien, through the middle of which
the railway came that year from Racine and onward to Beloit. The new
station at once became an important point for shipping the abundant grain
crops of Darien and other towns, and as busy a distributing point for the
trade in pine lumber. Less grain than then is now raised and forwarded.
but the station has not lost its relative importance. Before 1862 five grain
houses were built, severally by Parker M. Cole, Hiram Onderdonk, John
Williams, John Bruce and M. Bushnell Stone. These have been operated
by men who knew how to draw and hold trade.

The village is on slightly uneven ground, bul has no difficult street
grades. It is generally a few feet higher than at the station, where it is

244 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

945 feet above sea level. It is 9.4 miles from Elkhorn, 65.9 miles from
Milwaukee (by rail), 84.7 miles from Chicago. It is as yet unincorporated,
and has about four hundred inhabitants. (In October, 191 1, the village re-
jected a proposition to incorporate by a decisive majority.)

Its churches are Baptist and Methodist, each costing about three thou-
sand dollars. The town of Darien has seven school districts, of which three
are joint districts. The village supports a graded school, with six teachers,
doing excellent work. The school house was built in 1903 of red brick,
two stories high. A town hall, very convenient for many public occasions,
was built about 1870 and burned July 28, 1909, and with it most of the
priceless town records.

In 1897 the Farmers' State Bank was organized with a capital of fifteen
thousand dollars, John R. Eagan cashier and resident officer. It has a build-
ing suitable for its purpose. Like most villages in the county, Darien is an
active dairy center. Its cemetery, northwest of the village, lies on sloping
ground, and is kept in perfect order. Several of the fathers and mothers of the
town we're buried there, and also at the Mount Philip cemetery, Allen Grove,
which lies north of the station, within the town of Darien. The village
(Darien) has a tidy little park of two or three acres; but, in larger sense, the
village itself with all one may see, from its higher points, of field and grove
makes one of the finest parks in Wisconsin.

Clinton street, Allen Grove, lies along the south line of Darien, in section
31 ; and the Sidney Allen addition to the village plat lies north of that street.
The railway keeps to the Darien side, having its station at the top of Allen's
hill, at an inconvenient distance from the half-abandoned village. Bardwell
station, or crossing, at first named "Tioga," is in section 32. 2.5 miles from
Darien and 1.7 miles from Allen Grove. Its station building and its Y's
are all there is in sight besides the intersecting lines of two divisions of the
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway system. Why this crossing was not
made at Darien may be one of the inscrutabilities of railway building.

As nearly as may now be learned the town and village of Darien fur-
nished one hundred thirty-eight soldiers for the Civil war. Migration and
death have so far reduced the number of resident ex-soldiers as to suspend the
once flourishing Grand Army post.

The several postmasters were Christopher C. Chesebro, John Bruce.
Henry Frey, Edward Topping, Moses Bushnell Stone. Nathaniel Wing Hoag,
Joseph F. Lyon, Charles S. Teeple, George F. Lathrop, Rodney Seaver,*
Horace Everett Seaver, Edwin E. Park,* Frederick Siperley, John W. Gar-
butt.* The three whose name- are starred were soldiers of 1861.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

245

The loss of records, burned with the town hall, makes the official list
of the town somewhat incomplete; though part has been recovered from
county clerk's and circuit court clerk's records, and part from newspaper
files at Delavan and Elkhorn.

CHAIRMEN O!-- BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.

Salmon Thomas 1842, '44, '53

John Bruce 1843, '45

Newton McGraw 1846-7

Gaylord Blair 1848

George Cotton 1849-52

Chester Deming Long 1854

Hiram Averill Johnson 1855, '58

John Brooks Hastings 1856

Josiah Dodge 1857

George \Y. Lamont !8.S9

Parker M. Cole 1860-62

John DeWolf 1863, 76- '79

Horace Everett Seaver 1864

John J. Johnson 1865-6, 1885-6

Joseph Foster Lyon 1867-72, '74-5

Daniel Rodman 1873

John B. Johnson 1877, '80-1, '84

Darwin Pratt Clough 1878. '87-1)7

William P.lakeley 1882-3

John McFarlane 1898-9.

John Piper 1900-1

George Christie 1902-12

ASSOCIATE SUPERVISORS.

Charles Allen 1875-6, '79

Isaac \V. Babcock__i867, '79-80, '82-3

Willard B. Babcock 1861, '78

George W. Benner 1901-08

Gaylord Blair 1850

Byron J. Blakeley 1899-1900

Willard Blanchard 1849

Daniel Carey 1885

Orange Walker Carter 1845, '&9

George Christie 1886-95, 1900

Rufus Conable 1850

George Cotton 1846

John Cusack 1893-96, '98

Truman P. Davis 1865

John DeWolf 1856, '58

Josiah Dodge 1849

Lemuel Downs 1878

Tared Fox 1843

Cyrenus M. Fuller 1864

James Gale 1859-60

Moody Orlando Grinnell 1859

Wickham H. Griswold 1877, '85

Lewis E. Hastings 1888-90

Henry J. Heyer 1898

Edwin E. Ilillman 1873

Uriah Schutt Hollister

1866, '70-2., '74

Asher Johnson [842, '45, '48. '52

Hiram Averill Johnson J853"4

John J. Johnson 1863

William B. Johnson 1872

Abi jali Jones 1862

Loren Kenney Jones 1844, '60

George W. Lamont 1858

Ehenezer Latimer 1851

Peter M. Latimer 1862

246

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

John Lippit 1843

Hugh Long 1844

James W. Long 1891-2, '97

Alexander A. McKay 1870-1

Johnson Good well Matteson_i88i-2

Arthur W. Maxson 1867

Frank Niskern 1887

Hiram Onderdonk J85I-3

Joshua Parish 1854

Frank Pounder ^97

Dr. Andrew J. Rodman 1876

Daniel Rodman 1869

William Rood 1899

Horace Everett Seaver 1863, '66

Lyman Hunt Seaver 1842, '45, '57

Charles P. Soper__ 1848, '56, '65, '68

Arthur H. Stewart 1880-1

Hiram A. Stone 1857

Israel Stowell 1868, '73

Charles S. Teeple 1864

Edgar Topping 1861

John Milton Vanderhoof 1909-12

Rial X. Weed 1847

John Williams 1846-7

William H. Williams 1874-5, 'yj

Elmer C. Woodford 1901-11

Names are wanting for both supervisors in 1884, and for one of them in
each of the years 1883. '86, '90, and '93; but it is probable that Mr. Chris-
tie's service was continuous from 1886 to 1896 inclusive.

TOWN CLERKS.

Joseph Warren Seaver 1842-6, '57

Andrew J. Weatherwax 1847

Jonathan Hastings 1848

Calvin Serl 1849

Charles P. Soper 1850-2, '54

Elias W. Grow 1853

William A. Waterhouse 1855-6

Nathaniel Wing Hoag

1858-62, '64-71

Orange Williams 1863

Theron Rufus Morgan 1872, '76-9

Horace Everett Seaver 1873-5, '85

John Milton Vanderhoof

1 880-3, '86-9

Rile)- S. Young 1890-7

George L. Reed 1898-11)1-'

TOWN TREASURERS.

Loren Kenney Jones 1842

Hiram A. Stone 1843

Leander Dodge 1844

\.sa Foster 1845-6

Jonathan Hastings 1847

Henry Frey 1848-9

Hugh Long 1850, '59

William A. Waterhouse

'51-2, '57-8, '61-2, '64, '68

Lyman Hunt Seaver ^53

James Gale 1854

William Harper 1855, '60

John I). Older 1856

John S. Hodge 1863

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

247

Joseph Foster Lyon 1865-6

John Milton Vanderhoof 1869

Leroy Dodge 1870

Avery H. Stone 1871-2

Lucius C. Waite 1873-4

James Stryker 1875-6

Darwin Pratt Clough 1877

Rodney Seaver- 1878-80, '82, '85-90

William Edwin Clough 1881, '87

Edwin E. Park 1883-4

John McFarlane 1891-5

Henry J. Heyer 1896

James Thorpe 1897-1912

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

Ellis S. Barrett 1911-12

Edwin Buck Carter 1885-88

John S. Dodge 1862-64

John Gilbert 1910-12

Orvellus Henry Gilbert- 1860-4, '72-4.
Nicholas Montgomery Harring-
ton 1861-6

William Harrison 1859-61

Uriah Schutt Hollister 1867-8

Hiram Averill Johnson 1887-8

George W. Lamont 1863-7

Chester Deming Long 1877-82

James W. Long 1888-9

Joseph Foster Lyon 1863-9, 74_(l

Arthur \Y. Maxson__ 1864-6, '69-71
Peter J. Miserez 1900-1

Washington Mulks_ 1890-2, '99-1901

Eugene D. Odell 1885-7, '89-93

Dr. Andrew Jackson Rodman

1883-4

Adna Viles Sawyer 1897-1910

David H. Seaver, bet. 1896 and 1905

Horace Everett Seaver 1881-3

Calvin Serl 1860-1, '64-6

Edwin II. Smith__ 1878-94, '97-1902

Charles P. Soper 1866-70

Calvin Graham Sperry 1866-8

Moses Bushnell Stone 1859-61

John Milton Vanderhoof 1871-7

Bert H. Welch 1895-6

David Williams 1869-79, '82-99

Archibald Woodard 1870-8

CHAPTER XXII.

TOWN OF DELAVAN.

At the first division of the county, January 2, 1838, for town govern-
ment the southwestern quarter was named Delavan. The Phoenix brothers
sought thus to dedicate a newly planted community to total abstinence from
the use as beverages of spirituous and malt liquors, wine and cider. Ed-
ward Cornelius Delavan, a rich man of Albany, took an early part and
became a leader of great personal influence in the temperance movement of
the later thirties, which increased noticeably for some years thereafter. The
organization, founded on a belief in the efficacy of moral suasion, was volun-
tary, and without other ritual than a publicly taken pledge. Officially named
the New York State Temperance Society, its members were better known
as "Washingtonians." Mr. Delavan's social position, as well as his ability and
earnestness, made his name a household word in temperance families until
his fame was eclipsed, about 1850, by Neal Dow, the apostle of "legal sua-
sion." In their sales and leases of real estate in their new town and village
the Phoenix proprietors inserted a covenant, in effect, that no liquor should
ever be sold on land conveyed or left by them. But this stipulation did not
long outlast their own short lives.

The town of Walworth (with Sharon) was set off in 1839, and the
town of Darien early in the next year, leaving the name Delavan to town 2
north, range 16 east. One more dismemberment, February 2, 1846, gave
section 1 to the new town of Elkhorn. Of seven measurements recorded
by the state topographers the highest and lowest points were respectively
nine hundred and sixty-eight ami nine hundred and five feet above sea-level.
The higher ground is in the vicinity of Delavan lake.- — on both sides and at
its foot, — at points along it ^ outlel ami on hanks of Turtle creek, and in
the sections lying nearest the town of Sugar Creek.

Delavan lake is second in area and only in that way inferior in its nat-
ural beauty to Geneva lake. It is about three and one-half miles long, from
a half-mile to a mile in breadth, and its greatest depth, near its middle point,
is fifty-six and seven-tenths feet. Its largest inlet. Jackson's creek, comes
from Geneva into the town at section 12 and crosses sections 14 and 22 to
reach the foot of the lake. A much smaller stream comes out of Walworth,

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 249

crosses sections 33, 34 for less than a mile, and meets the lake near its tipper
end. Its one outlet, opposite the mouth of the larger inlet, takes a swan-
necked course to reach the Turtle near the city of Delavan. A widening
of Turtle creek, near by, locally named Lake Como, completed the sugges-
tion to Pottawattomie imagination of the body, neck, and head of the bird
from which they named the lake and its outlet. Turtle creek comes out of
Richmond into section 6, enters Darien from section 18, and winds its way to
the Rock near Beloit. The so-called island, which at wettest seasons has been
really an island, rises high above the water level, at the head of the lake, as
if to mask a small marsh which was part of the primitive lake-basin.

The farms at the broad foot of the lake are among the finest in the
county. They were owned for many years by the Mabie brothers and their
heirs, but have passed into other ownership. The high banks of the lake,
once well-wooded and now not wholly bare, are lined with summer homes,
hotels, parks, picnic grounds and steamer landings, — and, in brief, the Algon-
quin fishermen's Wah-ba-shaw-bess has become the white men's highly civ-
ilized Delavan lake. Whatever changes have been or may be made, the lake
itself and the natural height and slope of its containing walls will remain;
and the Pottawattomie' s grandson may fish as of yore in Swan lake, but
must first buy the county clerk's license and must submit his catch to the
game warden's count. The Delavan Lake Assembly Association's ground,
about thirty-seven acres, fully equipped with auditorium and other suitable
buildings, lies at the head of the outlet. Its yearly meetings bring visitors
from far beyond the county borders, and have had their part in making the
little lake a part of the geography of American inland waters, not to know
which argues one's self unknown and as having yet something of rational
interest to learn. About thirty-five years ago a steamer, the "D. A. Olin,"
was built and launched, but was found rather too large for practical use. The
present flotilla is two small serviceable steamers and numerous unregistered
sail-boats.

The land area of the town of Delavan is 18,751 acres, valued at $2,629,-
000, an average value $140.25 per acre. Crop acreages for 1910 were: Bar-
ley, 1,556; corn, 345: growing timber, 1,183; hayfields, 3.038; oats, 1,769;
orchards, 54; potatoes, 135; rye, 166; wheat, 28. There were nine automo-
biles. The population of town and village in 1850 was 1,268. At the six
following federal enumerations it was for the town: i860, 890; 1870, 821;
1880, 930; 1890, 667; 1900, 993; 1910, 903.

Col. Samuel F. Phoenix having discovered the lake, its outlet, and the
point at which the road from Racine to Janesville must cross the swan's

25O WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

neck, chose his lands by quarter-sections and half-quarters in sections 15,
20, 21, 22, 33, 34. He built his cabin in section 15, near the foot of the
lake. Henry Phoenix entered land in sections 7, 17. 18, 19, 20, 21. The
brothers jointly entered parts of sections 23, 24, 28, 29. Section 18 includes
the site of their village. These men dealt justly and liberally with other
men who came to build and people the rising city. The Phoenixes came
with enough money for their enterprise, and their money, business abilities,
and personal character and qualities gave them proportionate influence as
long as they lived. A house was built early enough in 1836, on the east
bank of the outlet and within the village as soon afterward platted, to admit
their cousin, William Phoenix, and wife Susan, with their family and board-
ers, as occupants, in October. Allen Perkins had also built earlier in the year,
at a point on Turtle creek, within section 18, but did not stay long. In 1837
Colonel Phoenix brought his wife and son from Perry, New7 York, and
Henry's family came in 1838.

A saw-mill was built between the village and the lake in 1838, and was
at once set at work to turn out materials for a grist-mill, at the village. In
1838 a stock of goods was brought and set out for sale, at first near the
saw-mill, but a few weeks later at the house in the village. One of the
earliest revenue measures of the county commissioners was to impose a deal-
er's license fee of ten dollars on the firm of H. & S. F. Phoenix ; but it does
not appear in record that the county commissioners licensed a tavern in town
or village.

No registry of arrivals was ever made and preserved, but the persons
here named probably came to village or town by or before 1843: Abner
Adams, William C. Allen, Ira Andrus, James Aram, John Auchampaugh,
William Averill, Enoch Bailey and sons, Henry, Nehemiah and Samuel W.
Barlow, William A. Bartlett, Richard Beals (wife Lucy Beardsley), Richard
S. Bond, Daniel Bowen (d. i860), Peter Boys (1783-1855), Jeremiah Brad-
ley, Cyrus, Edwin, and Ichabod Brainard f 1 776-1855) , Martin Brooks, Isaac
Burson, Chester P., Hiram, and Nelson Calkins. David Perry Calkins, Luther
Chapin, Jonathan C. Church, Daniel Clough, John Dalton (1800-1887) and
wife Ellen, Edmund Dickenson, I.azarus W. Ellis, John Evans, James F.
Flanders, Walter Flansburg. Daniel G. Foster, Abraham Fryer, John and
Stephen P. Fuller, Daniel Gates, Levi Gloyd, Marcellus B. Goff (1808-1884),
Jasper Griggs, Benjamin F. and Henry Hart, Edwin A. and William Hol-
linshead, Edward B. Hollister, Isaac C. Howe (1793-1887), Dr. Hender-
son Hunt, John James, Asa G., Milo, and Samuel C. Kelsey, Daniel E.
La Bar, James H. Mansfield, Hilas Meacham, Lewis H. Miller. Tames Mof-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. _> ^ I

fatt, John Murray, Edward Norris, Alvin B. and Chauncey Parsons, George
Passage, Webster Pease, Ira C. and Ransom Perry, Truman Pierce (1787-
j 8(1(1 1. Thomas Potter, Joseph Rector, James Richardson (1781-1846), Peter
Robinson, John I. Scrafford, John B. Shepard, Erastus Stoddard, Israel
Stowell, Philo S. Sykes, Aaron H. Taggart, Hiram Terry, Rev. Henry Top-
ping, Ira and Samuel Utter, Jeremiah Philbrook Ward, Eleazar Gaylord War-
ren, Thomas Wells, Lewis H. Willis, James Wilson, John Yost.

Ichabod Brainard (1776-1855) married a second wife, Mary (born
1779)> daughter of John Cleveland and Eunice Cutler. Cyrus was their
son, as was probably Edwin, who married Mary A., daughter of William
and Ann Phoenix.

Isaac Burson (1810-1881) was son of James Burson and Deborah
Stroud, and was born in Monroe county, Pennsylvania. He was a brother
of Mrs. William Hollinshead. He lived unmarried, and died at Elkhorn,
March 5, 1881. His burial was delayed for some days by the memorable
snow blockade of that year. He bought land in section 4, Delavan, and
sections 20, 33, Sugar Creek.

Chester Porter Calkins (1818-1890) married Catharine, daughter of
Abraham Sperbeck. He was buried at East Delavan.

Jonathan C. Church (1811-1870) married Dorcas, daughter of Thomas
James and Dorcas Perry.

Rev. James F. Flanders married Ann Elizabeth Porter, June 4, 1839.
It is not shown where this marriage took place, but it was within the larger
town of Elkhorn.

Daniel Oilman Foster (1802), son of Daniel Foster and Al.m Davis,
a native of New Hampshire, married Caroline, daughter of Daniel Brainard ;
came from Perry, New York, in 1838 and bought land in sections 7, 21.

Stephen P. Fuller married Man. daughter of Nehemiah Barlow and
Orinda Steele. His sister. Loraine P.. Fuller, was Doctor Hunt's firsl wife.

Daniel Stroud Hollinshead (1812-1869), son of James Hollinshead and
Sarah Stroud, married Rachel Sherrod (1807-1853)- Edwin Augustus and
William were his brothers. The former bought land in section 34, Sugar
Creek.

Edward Brigham Hollister (1823-1801), son of Seth L. Hollister and
Catharine Brigham, married Harriet, daughter of Francis Eaton.

Milo and Samuel C. Kelsey were sons of Samuel Kelsey and Elizabeth
Carver, of Sherburne, New York. Sarah Ann. their sister, was wife of
Colonel Phoenix. Asa G. Kelsey's relationship may have been that of brother

252 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

or of cousin. Milo was the first lawyer at Delavan. Samuel C. was a sur-
veyor, teacher and architect. He married Caroline M., daughter of Colonel
Betts.

Daniel Edwin La Bar (1789-1839) married Hannah (1793-1856),
daughter of Samuel Rees and Rachel Stroud (1774-1854). He came in
1839 to sections 6. 7. His son, Samuel Rees La Bar (1820-1896). came in
the same year. His wife was Harriet Nuel, daughter of Rev. Henry Topping
and Nuel Van Doren.

Ira C. Perry bought land in section 31. April 5, 1843, he married Ann
Briggs.

Truman Pierce (1787-1866) bought in section 31. His wife, Lucy, was
born in 1793. Two of his sons-in-law were Kirtland G. Wright and Calvin
Carrington. He and his mother, Mary (1755-1852), were buried at East
Delavan.

Joseph Rector (1806-1869) with wife. Alary Ann McDougal ( 1S09-
1875), settled in section 34, but a few years later moved into Walworth.

John Bisby Shepard (1803-1875) was a son of Pelatiah Shepard and
Elizabeth Thompson, of Fulton county, New York. He married Rachel
(1806-1872), daughter of Benjamin Willis and Bridget Cole, and had five
children. Of these, Sabra Amelia was wife of Reuben H. Bristol, Mary
Selina was Mrs. Edward Colman, and Linus Delavan married Clarissa Zu-
lemma, daughter of Adna Sawyer and Serena Norton Viles (widow of Ben-
jamin Home).

Israel Stowell (1812-1876), native of New Hampshire, married Mary
M., daughter of Truman Jones and Elizabeth Kinne. He came to the village
in 1838, and it is told that he built the first framed house, opened the first
tavern, and placed a stagg-coach on the route between Delavan and Chicago.
A year before his death he married a second time.

Aaron Hardin Taggart (1816-1874) bought land in section 21, but be-
came one of the earliest business men of Delavan. He married, in 1846,
Martha (1826-1905), daughter of Henry Phoenix and Ann Jennings. They
had seven children.

Ira ('.. John (born 1825* and Samuel Utter 1 1807-1898) were sons of
Abraham Utter and Marinda Beardsley, of Washington county. New York.
John married Louisa Amanda, daughter of Winsor Lapham. Samuel came
in 1843 with his second wife, Harriet A. Winston (1823-1906).

Lewis Henry Willis (1817-1886). son of William Willis and Elizabeth

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 253

Hoyt, came from Sparta, New York, to Delavan in 1840, to section 23. His
first wife, Mary M., was daughter of Orsamus Bowers. In 1872 he married
Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Adriance. of Scipio, New York.

Chauncey D. Woodford (1827-1891) was son of Austin (1785-1866)
and Roxana (1793-1856).. He married Sarah Fenton 1 1828-1864), daugh-
ter of Moses Ball and Lucinda Holland. He was the first wagon-maker and
blacksmith at East Delavan corners.

About 1843 Truman Pierce, Samuel Utter, Kirtland G. Wright and
Calvin Carrington, farmers living near the intersection of the highway be-
tween Delavan and Lake Geneva, with the north and south road dividing
section 25 from section 26, chose that point as one convenient for a store,
repair shops, and whatever else might develop there. In no long time a
school house and church followed. The store has always had a good local
trade and its business lias generally been in good hands. The other buildings
were displaced by larger and better ones, and a convenient town hall was
added to the group. A butter factory, in operation for several years past,
was burned in June, 191 1. It has been rebuilt with hollow cement blocks.
Its monthly receipt of milk was about one hundred and twenty-five thousand
pounds, and its monthly product of butter about three thousand five hundred
pounds.

A postoffice was established about 1872, a station on the star-route from
Elkhorn to Harvard. The recent institution of rural free delivery service
has divided the postal business of the eastern half of the town of Delavan
between route No. 2, Lake Geneva, and route No. 2, Elkhorn, the village
being served from the Lake Geneva office. In the village are about a dozen
dwellings and fifty inhabitants. Its always prosperous Baptist church, or-
ganized in 1843, has a resident pastor, now Rev. William A. Weyrauch. The
town hall houses a small public library. Nearly a mile and one-half away,
at the northeast corner of section 36, is a little church of the Latter-day
Saints, founded by a few persons who chose not to follow President Young.
Henry Southwick was its spiritual leader for many years. A mile west of
this church, at the corner of section 26, and three-quarters of a mile south of
the village, is the small but sufficient and neatly kept East Delavan cemetery,
where one may read on marble and granite several names of the fathers and
mothers of the township.

The official lists of Delavan town (and city 1 an- slightly imperfect,
though not discontinuous.

254

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

CHAIRMEN OF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.

William Ayres Bartlett 1842

Dr. Henderson Hunt 1843

William Phoenix 1844-5

Charles Holmes Sturtevant — 1846-7

Samuel Jones _ 1848

Henry Mallorv 1849

Asa Congdon 1850

Stephen Steele Barlow 1851

Dr. Norman L. Gaston 1852

Aaron Hardin Taggart 1853

Joseph L. Mott 1854

Edward P. Conrick 1855-9

Salmon Thomas 1860-1

James Aram 1862-74

Henry George Hollister 1875-97

Thomas F. Williams . —

1898-9, 1906-10

Winsor Sales Dunbar 1900-1

Cyrus H. Serl 1902

Herman A. Briggs x903-5

Bernard Conry 1911-12

ASSOCIATE SUPERVISORS.

Alexander H. Allyn 1877-82

James Aram 1850-1, '59-61

Charles Stewart Bailey

1842, '47, '54
Levi Parsons Bailey

1857, '04-5, '73

Henry Barlow 1866-72

Samuel W. Barlow 1853-8

Silas Van Xess Barlow 1876

Peter Boys 1847

Herman A. Briggs 1888-91

Hiram Calkins 1843

Jonathan C. Church 1843

Moses R. Cheever 1859

Daniel Clark 1853

Homer Coleman 1864-5

Asa Congdon 1849

Fred D. Cowles 1900-2

James Dilley 1852

Lemuel Downs 1892-7

Winsor Sales Dunbar 1899

George W. Farrar 1893-7

Edward F. Fiedler iqti-12

Clinton Quincy Fisk 1898

James M. Gaskill 1861-2

William Hollinshead 1845, '74"5

Henry George Hollister 1866-73

Job J. Hollister 1906-9

Milton L. Hollister 1874

William S. Howe l!~v5-'1

Samuel Jones 1847

Phineas Dudley Kendrick_i855, '58

Samuel Rees La Bar 1856-7

Ebenezer Latimer J863

John S. McDougal 1879-91

Henry Mallorv 1846, '63

Hilas Meacham 1862

William M. Mereness 1003-4

George Passage 1844. '46

John Prudames !9°5

William Redford 1877-8

Cyrus H. Serl 1898-1002

John Strong 1903-4

Ira C. Utter 1845

Samuel Utter .1850. '55-6. '60, '62
John M. Walker 1883-7

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

Herbert J. Welcher 1906-9 William C. Wirikleman 1905

lewis D. Williams 1911-12 Kirtland G. Wright 1849, '51

Richard Williams 1854

TOWN CLERKS.

Stephen Steele Barlow 1842-3

Cyrus Brainard 1844-5

Hugh Bradt 1846, '50-2

Charles Smith 1847-8

Samuel Carver Kelsey 1849

Enoch Henry Martin Bailey__ 1853-4

George Frank H. Betts 1855

Henry J. Briggs 1856

Charles M. Bradt 1857-8

James S. Dilley 1859

Sardis Brainard 1860-1

Ebenezer K. Barker 1862

Charles E. Griffin 1863, '66-9

Kinner Newcomb Hollister 1864

Hiram Terry Sharp 1865

Tra Pratt Larnard 1870-90

A. Harvey Lowe 1891-7

Henry P. Hare 1898-1900

Orville S. Smith 1901-12

TOWN TREASURERS.

Jasper Griggs 1842-3

Hezekiah Wells 1844

Alfred Stewart 1845, '48

Aaron H. Taggart 1846

Joseph D. Monell, Jr. 1847

William Willard Isham 1849

Philetus S. Carver 1850

William Clark 1851-2

Stephen S. Babcock 1853

William Wallace Bradley 1854-5

Charles Smith 1856-7

George F. H. Betts 1858

Edwin W. Phelps 1859

Benjamin D. White i860

Charles I T. Sanborn r86i

Sardis Brainard 1862

James F. Latimer 1863

Newton McGraw 1864-6

Henry C. Hunt 1867-8

Elijah Matteson Sharp 1869-72

Norman A. Keeler 1873

Frank A. Smith 1874

William B. Mnnsell 1875-6

William TT. Nichols 1877-8

Isaac Young Filzer 1879-80

Dr. George FT. Briggs 1881-2

Henry C. Johnson 1883-97

K'os. S. Smith T1S98

Romain M. Calkins 1890-1004

Wallace C. Austin 1905- 12

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

Allen Bennett 76-80. '82-4

Stephen S. Babcock T877-9

Arthur Bowers 1892-4, '97-9

Henry W. Clark 1860-62

Or. Daniel B. Devendorf 1N71

Edward J. Dodd 1887

256

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

George Frederick Flanders 1886-90

Charles E. Griffin 1862-4

David B. Harrington 1886-90

Henry C. Johnson 1890-2

Henry C. Kishner 1891-3

Newton McGraw 1854-74

Silas W. Menzie 1871-82

Wilbur J. Reynolds 1900-03

Alfred Stephens Spooner

1872-6, '92-4

Charles Holmes Sturtevant

1883-7

Abner Van Dyke 1879-83

Ernest L. Yon Suessmilch 1894-8

Henry W. Weed 1893-5

Richard Williams 1859-61. '65-8

Thomas F. Williams

1879-83. '94-1912

Lewis Henry Willis 1861-3, '75-7

Frank A. Winn 1890-2

Philip Stephen Wiswell 1900

Chauncey D. Woodford

1863-75, '87-91

CHAPTER XXIII.

CITY OF DELAVAN.

Colonel Phoenix, his brother, and his cousin, platted their village and
settled in it in 1837, and they had not long to wait for lot buyers and neigh-
bors. The Colonel's early death, and that of his brother, about two years
later, were most regrettable, for their character and practical abilities g.v.-e
them influence and weight; but these events did not arrest progress. The
cousin remained a few more years and left the county before the village
was incorporated.

Among the earlier business men were James Aram, W. Wallace Brad-
ley, Col. Caleb and Edwin Croswell, Nicholas M. Harrington. Joseph D.
Monell. Jr., George Passage, Aaron H. Taggart, Thomas Topping and Heze-
kiah Wells. Rev. Henry Topping came in 1839 to Darien and was induced
to settle at Delavan in 1841, in which year came also Dr. Henderson Hunt.

No village can exist permanently without a blacksmith. In 1840 Alonzo
McGraw came thus to confirm the site of the coming city. \V. Willard
Isham came in 1845 as a wagonsmith, and with Charles H. Sturtevant as
wheelwright and partner, important trade was soon brought l" Delavan.
As the village and neighboring farm lands were settled men came in from
their fields and resumed the mechanical or commercial occupations to which
they had been bred but which they had dropped awhile. One intimate!}- ac-
quainted with men of the first half-century of the county would find rnanj
farmers who had been bred to village occupations, and a few who had seen
human life far more broadly

The grist-mill, built in 1839, passed successively, with continuous im-
provement, to the Croswell-. the Mabies (who rebuilt it in 1853), and to
Amos Phelps. The Delavan flour was of the best in the county markel
When wheat was no longer raised in 01 near the county it was and is yel im-
ported by rail for local grinding.

William Phoenix built his house in 1837 and made it serve for a short
time as a hotel. This was on the bank of the outlet, at the upper end of
Terrace street. Within two or three years he built again, for hotel purpose
only, near the lower end of Walworth avenue, and sold or leased the prem

' (17)

2^8 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

ises in 1841 to Israel Stowell. In 1843 Ezekiel Tripp took the house for a
short term. He also sold rights to make or use a patented substitute for
tallow candles or candlesticks, by which some of his customers burned their
fingers badly. Philetus S. Carver followed him, but, becoming sheriff, he
made way in 1845 for one Harkness, from Darien, who in some way ob-
tained a license to sell the strong drink which the Phoenixes had sought to
keep out of Delavan forever. Charles H. Sturtevant built his bar-room
fixtures and was severely censured by his fellow members of the temperance
society for so aiding and abetting the introduction of an abomination. Henry
H. Phoenix and a Mr. Babcock had each a short period as landlord.

In 1846 Horace Duryee, a shoemaker, built a new house, long known
as the Delavan House, or "white hotel." His capital was said to have been
"a black sheepskin and a side of sole-leather." He let his house to Ward
Mallory, who kept a well-ordered hotel for the next six years. Then came
Hagarnan & Southworth, followed by Mr. Eaton. In i860 Chester W.
Phillips became owner and landlord. In 1863 he extended it and raised it
to three stories, and leased it to Mr. Hobbs, after whom came Greenleaf W.
Collins. Edwin M. Strow bought the house in i860 and occupied it till his
death, May 20, 1893. Mrs. Strow continued its business until the great fire
of that year removed an old landmark.

Franklin K. Phoenix built a brick hotel, of three stories, in 1848. His
first tenant was William lloyt. who presently made way for Stowell &
Jones, but returned, to be succeeded by Milo Kelsey, whose tenure was soon
ended by his death. Mrs. Sarah A. Phoenix then conducted the business
until relieved by Ralph Lathrop. in whose time the house fell into some local
disfavor. It was closed for a short time as a hotel and opened as a private
academy. Dates and, perhaps, names are wanting within this and a later
period of quickly following change. Daniel Ostrom kept the house in 1859
and [860, if not one or more years later. In [865 Ward LVfallory bought,
refitted, and occupied it until 1868, when he sold it to Elon Andrus, who
came from Lake Geneva. This proprietorship may have continued for fifteen
years and was followed by Benjamin Bassler, Greenleaf \V. Collins, Mr.
Erchinbeck, Mr. Longley, Mrs. Strow. and possibly others, in uncertain
order. About 1009 this ancient hostelry was converted to other uses, never
again, it is probable, to supply solid comfort and liquid delight to either
traveler or citizen.

On the blackened site of the Delavan House arose in [894 the Hotel
Delavan, built and equipped in one of the styles of that year for Wisconsin
cities of the fourth class — thai is. outwardly hisrh and not unsightly and com-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 259

fortable and convenient in modern ways within. Clarence W. Bartram built
the new house and kept it four or five years, when it passed to John B. De-
laney. and thence severally to William Bowman, of Racine, Mrs. Barrett and
her sons, and lastly to William Bowers of Burlington.

The Mabie Brothers came to Delavan in 1850 and bought farm property
as well as interests in the village, and thereafter wintered their menagerie,
live stock — horses and wild beasts — near the lower end of the lake. Thus,
this became the starting point of each season's tour of the states. As the
Mabies raised and bought grain, turned out good flour and plenty of it, and
made dates for show performances at home, the citizens of the village and
its neighborhood were supplied at lowest market rates w ith these prime needs
of Romans — "bread and circuses" — and the Caesars, had they reigned at
Delavan. could not have done these things better. Other men. whose exper-
ience had been gained in the service of the Mabies. or who were influenced by
the example of their success, set out from time to time with traveling shows,
for one or more seasons each. For twenty years the city and the circus were
associated in the minds of severely-moral editors in the far northern counties,
half of whom mispelled the name of the "wickedest town in Wisconsin." and
none of whom dared to offend rich sinners living north of Winnebago lake.
Delavan circus owners were reputable and useful citizens, and their men.
armed with tent stakes, could hold their own against the midnight assaults of
gangs that thought no deed was so finely heroic as to "clean out" a circus. All
that, for Delavan. has so long ago passed away that one now living must be
well past middle age who last saw a Delavan circus.

Xicholas M. Harrington may have been in [853 the first banker at Dela-
van: but was not. as has been told, the first in the county. That distinction.
such as it was, belonged to Mr. Richardson, who opened the Rank of Geneva
in [848. In his appreciative autobiography, Mr. Harrington mentioned with-
out wearisome dates or other useful details his various private and public
utilities. Since he who knew the affairs of this bank, if bank it was, from
the inside, has left its tale untold, it can be inferred here only that it was most
likely useful to its patrons, and that it closed without great disaster to himself.

Railwav prospects for Delavan brightened in [854 and her liberal aid in
village bonds and individual subscriptions made certain hei earl) connection
with all that part of the world which really moves. Business in real estate
increased at once in anticipation of the first train arrival, and other businesses
joined the forward march. The track layers stopped at Burlington for the
winter of 1^55-6. but resumed work before the frost was out of the ground,
reaching the village about May. For a few months Delavan became a term-

26(3 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

inal station, with a rough shed for engine shelter, while the work was pushed
forward, reaching Beloit in that year. Early in the same hopeful year the
Walworth County Bank was organized, with William C. Allen as president
and William W. Dinsmore as cashier. It was then, or a little later, owned
mostly by W. Augustus Ray and Henry M. Ray, his father. In 1865 the
First National Bank grew out of the older bank, with Otho Bell as president
and \V. Augustus Ray as cashier. Its other principal incorporators were Will-
iam C. Allen, Alanson H. and D. Bennett Barnes, Ira Ford, Sarah P. Kel-
sey, Ebenezer Latimer. Jeremiah Mabie, Lafayette Pitkin, Henry M. Ray,
Charles Thaddeus Smith, Warren VY. Sturtevant. Alfred D. and Salmon
Thomas. In 1880 this bank closed and was succeeded by the banking house
of F. Latimer & Company, with A. Hastings Kendrick as cashier. Mr. Lati-
mer died in 1910, but the bank retained his name until 191 1, when it became
the Wisconsin State Bank. Its capital is $30,000, its deposits about $400,000.
Mr. Kendrick is now president and Charles H. Shulz is cashier.

The Citizens Bank of Delavan began business in March, 1875, with Frank
Leland as president and Charles B. Tallman as cashier. The leading stock-
holders were Otho Bell, James II. Cam]), George Cotton. John DeWolf,
Jamin H. Goodrich, W. Willard Isham, T. Perry James. Henry G. Reichwald,
and Charles S. Teeple. At present its capital is $50,000, its deposits about
$600,000. Both these banks are now in buildings designed for their purpose,
handsome and substantial without, businesslike and suitable within. Both
banks have passed the perils of infancy, and may be regarded as institutions
— things that do noi pass away.

Men of Delavan early enough saw the importance to their village of
local manufacturing, and good workmen found no want of encouragement
even if their capital was but small. Wagon simps, planing mill, foundry.
pump-works, lack factory, shoe factory were among many undertakings
which, each in its turn, was forced, sooner or later, to yield to conditions
imposed by the newer system of factory production that has so effectually
Forced apart the local manufacturer and his home customer. Mr, [sham be-
gan in 1 N-| 5 a shop for blacksmith and general woodwork which soon became
a prosperous wagon and carriage shop. With changing partnerships and
readjustments of the business he persevered for about a quarter century, and
then went into oilier business.

The pump and windmill works began in [861, owned by Trumbuil D,
Thomas, followed by a long list of linns and single owners, the best remem-
bered of whom were Patrick Gormlej and ( (liver G Stowell. This enterprise
continued for twenty or thirty vears to make Delavan known far and wide

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. jl i I

by its works. Tlie tack factor)', not owned by Delavan men, occupied tbe
pump-shop building for a few years and then its machinery and business were
taken elsewhere.

Men of Chicago came in 1003 with the Globe Knitting Works. The
late \V. W. Bradley's successors became managers in 1905, having formed a
company of stockholders, with an investment of $300,000. The works have
been greatly extended and improved. Their production is mostly "sweaters"
of high quality and in many styles and colors. About three hundred persons
are employed steadily, mostly drawn from Delavan and its vicinity. The
effect of such an enterprise on the general prosperity of the city is noticeable.
The present officers of the company are John J. Phoenix, president: William
B. Tyrrell, vice-president: Ithel B. Davies, treasurer; William II. Tyrrell,
treasurer.

THE PRESS.

The newspapers of Delavan began in 1852 with the Walworth County
Journal, by John C. Bunner, with help from open-handed citizens. In 1855
the way was clear for Joseph Baker and William M. Doty, with the Delavan
Messenger, and with liberal help, for the village needed and would have a local
newspaper. In 1857 Mr. Baker and James W. Lawton re-named the paper
Delavan Northron, a name indicating the political sentiment of editors and
patrons. Henry L. Devereux, an old-time printer, bought Mr. Baker's in-
terest and soon sold it to Mr. Lawton. who changed the name in [862 to Pela-
van Republican. P.. G. Wheeler put forth the Patriot in [861, hut it was soon
merged, name and all. in the older concern, which for two or three years
joined the two named and then became again the Republican. Messrs. \. I).
Wright and Andrew J. Woodbury bought the office at Mr. Lawton's death.
in iSji. and a few months Later Mr. Wright was sole owner, lie was an
excellent printer and competent editor. In 1874 he removed to Rockford
and the new owners placed Frank Leland temporarily in editorship. I le
retired in April. 1875. and George B. Tallman appeared as editor and printer.
The owners, then, or soon thereafter, were Charles B. and George B. Tall-
man. D Bennetl Barnes and Cyrus Williams. Another change left the Tail-
mans in full control.

George B. Tallman's local editorship had a half-reckless, off-hand, good
humored quality, unmatched elsewhere in the county, and hi- paper was very
readable whenever his press happened to stand nearh level and the ink to !»•
evenly distributed ; for he was no pressman, though lie was a rapid type-setter.
Weekly, throughout the years, he would stand upright at hi a 1 without

262 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

written copy, talking, laughing, whistling, and set up a column of ''local items"
— crisp, racy, slangy — increasing in length from a half-line to four or five
lines.

Wilbur G. Weeks, a better printer and more careful editor than Tall-
man, bought the office in 1881, improved its equipment and its business, and
made the Republican good property. He sold it in 1908 to A. S. Hearn of
Dodgeville, from whom it passed in October, 1909, to Maurice Morrissey, with
L. F. Malany as business manager.

In 1859 G. W. D. Andrews, then on an informal furlough from service
in the regular army, came to stay the rising tide of Republicanism by printing
a few numbers of the Walworth County Sovereign. This paper's short career
was ended by fire, and its portly editor was afterwards arrested as a deserter.

A boy of Darien, Frank P. Howard, aged about sixteen, owner of a
make-shift press and as much half-worn type as he could lift easily, came
this way in 1898 to publish the Delavan Tribune. The boy had natural
aptitudes which more judiciously guided and encouraged might have made
him a useful man. To begin as master of a calling of which he had learned
no part was to set out by a short but rugged road to failure. But the poor boy
had done something to make a second paper at Delavan, and his foolish ven-
ture led to something better. He died early.

The Delavan Enterprise began in 1878 under ownership of competent
printers and with vigorous editorship, namely, that of Clarence R. and Edgar
W. Conable. of an old county family. Though a Republican paper, the
Enterprise, in 1882. joined the rebellion against Charles G. Williams, who
was in that year defeated at the congressional election. Hiram T. Sharp, a
lawyer and a gentleman, became owner and editor in 1884. He was not a
printer, nor had he been trained to editorship. He could only make the En-
terprise clean and decent, like himself, and keep it so. lie sold it in 1893
to Grant D. Harrington (.son of an old and worthy citizen of Delavan). who
became its editor for the next live years. David B. Harrington, an uncle,
who was a printer and an old-time editor, sometimes contributed to campaign
discussion and showed younger men what editorship was of yore. The younger
Harrington has since said that he can not "point with pride" to anything in
his editorial career. No becomingly modest man wastes time in pointing
backward in his own rough road to the stars. Grant D. Harrington has yet
to disappoint the rcasniiahlc hopes of his friends in any of his undertakings
He was well equipped for every duty of a village newspaper office and he
restored the Enterprise to life and usefulness, made it truly a second paper
at Delavan, and sold it in [898 to Frank \l. Stevens. E. J. Scut bought it

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. _M 13

in 1900. but sold again to Stevens in 1901. In 1902 William A. Dean took
possession and the next year William T. Passage, son of the pioneer merchant,
became a partner and in 1908 sole owner. Judging from outward appear-
ances, the progress of the Enterprise since 1893 nas been steadily forward.
Both offices at Delavan are equipped with power presses and the Republican
is linotyped.

L. and Milton A. Brown, father and son. were successful horse-breeders
and decent men. but were not of the stuff of which editors or printers are
commonly made. They must have believed that Mr. Cleveland was about to
be re-elected to the presidency, for they began their apprenticehood very early
in 1888 by publishing, January 7th. the first number of a second Walworth
County Democrat. This paper was edited and printed, though few or none
can now tell how, for something like a year: but the result of the election did
not encourage further amateur effort in organ-making In all this, however,
was one then very young man's opportunity, and the evolution of a real editor
began in the person of William T. Passage.

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.

Seventeen men and women formed a Baptist society September 21,
1839. with Rev. Henry Topping as pastor, and in 1841 a church was built of
wood, at cost of about one thousand five hundred dollars, thirty-six by fifty
feet on the ground, with seats for two hundred persons. This was on a lot
given by the Phoenix proprietors, and this desirable site, fronting the west
side of the park is still occupied by the society. \ brick church was built
in 1854 with one-third more floor space at cost of four thousand dollars. This
society, for long the largest of its denomination in the state, and yet the lead
ing one in the county, built its third church in 1880, seventy by one hundred
and twenty-eight feet on the ground. After Mr. Topping, the pastors have
been John H. Dudley 1844, Mead Bailej 1S50, Newell Boughton [853, Albert
Sheldon 1854. Jeremiah D. Cole 1858. John Williams i860. David Burbank
1862. Ethan B. Palmer [864, Joseph 1'".. Johnson [865, Charles T. Km- [868,
David E. Halteman 1869, Charles A. Hobbs 1N84. Wiliam R. Yard io<><).
The long pastorates of Messrs Halteman and 1 lobbs had a parallel in another
church fronting the same park.

St. Andrew'- parish was formed by assembling the somewhat widely
dispersed families of Delavan and adjoining towns in [851. In [853 a little
chapel was lmilt at Fourth and Matthew streel . and the Rev. Fathers <i>n-
way. Francis Prendergast and I'. J. Mallon were - 1 senl for this

264 WALWORTH COl.NTV, WISCONSIN.

pioneer work. About 1859 Father George H. Brennan came as a resident
priest, followed by T. A. Smith in 1861, Henry J. Roche 1863, Lawrence N.
Kenney 1864, Jacob Morris 1866, Richard Dumphy 1869, J. Eugene Allen
1878, Michael J. Tanglier 1881, Joseph G. Smith 1886, John Buckley 1909,
Father Allen was the last who drove through sunshine, cloud, mud and un-
beaten snow to minister to the mission parish of St. Patrick's, at Elkhorn.
While lot values were relatively quite low the parish bought at Walworth
avenue and Seventh street, and in 1895 one °f me finest churches in the
county was dedicated. A well-chosen cemetery lot was acquired at an early
opportunity, and many of the dead of Elkhorn and other towns were buried
there. This ground joins Spring Grove cemetery, with no barrier between.
The present valuation of all the parish property, which includes a fine house
for the priest, is about seventy-five thousand dollars. The parish is in ex-
cellent condition for its work.

The Congregational society dates its beginning July, 1841. with ten
members. A little church was built at the north side of Maple Park in 1844.
with an outlay of one thousand dollars — then a large sum for an unselfish
purpose. A new church, with brick walls, forty-two by seventv-five feet, was
built in 1856 at cost of five thousand dollars. This has since been extended,
modernized and improved. Rev. Amnon Gaston began his triple service.
here, at Elkhorn. and at Sugar Creek in 1841. After him came Frederick H.
Pitkin 1845. Lucius Foote 1847 ( 1798-1887), Joseph Collie 1854. William E.
Davidson [896, Sedgwick Porter Wilder 1898 (1847-1905), Howard W.
Kellogg 1905, Thistle V Williams 10,09. Mr. Collie's long service is note-
worthy.

Christ Church parish was formed in July. 1844, with Nehemiah Barlow
and Hezekiah Well- as wardens, Caleb Croswell, B. J. Newberry. Joseph
Rector, Dr. Shepard Sherwood, Salmon Thomas as vestrymen. A small
house at the south side of the park answered the passing need until 1877.
when work began anew on the parish lot at Walworth avenue and Fifth
street. In [879 this building was dedicated and ha-- since been extended ami
improved and a rectory added, making the total estate worth about twenty-
five thousand dollars. The line of rectors began with Rev. Stephen Mel high
1844, who wa- called to Madison in 1845 and returned in 184c; — the interim
filled by Rev. Mr. Bartlett. Then came Gerrit E. Peters [852, Joseph Adderly,
[bseph II. Nichols, Albert Scott Nicholson 1861. Gardiner M. Skinner [862,
George W. Mean 1865, Fortune C. Brown 1870. Edward R. Sweetland 187(1,
Joel 1 'lark [879, Charles Holmes 1880, Charles L. Mallory [891, lames B.
VTcCullough 1901, Edward S. Barkdull [902, John White moo. Mark- 11.
Milne IQIO.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 265

Troy circuit, Methodist Episcopal, was formed in 1841 and included
Eagle, Troy. Lagrange, Sugar Creek. Darien and Delavan. Except Rev.
.Messrs. Leonard F. Moulthrop and Henry Whitehead, named in 1841, and
Hiram Allen in 1845-6, the workers in this then difficult field, for the first
ten years, are not indicated by the record of credentials filed at the office of
the clerk of the circuit court, though there were probably others than these
three. Reuben Richardson Wood (1819-1906), ordained in 1842, came to
Delavan as resident pastor in 1850, doubtless with assignment to duty at
Darien. In 1853 Enos Stevens and J. H. Hopeton supplied a short vacancv
filled in that year by Elisha Page, after whom John Tibbals 1854, Hiram I 1.
Hersey (1812-1884) in 1856, Thomas White 1858, Russell P. Lawton 1859,
Cyrus Scammon i860, James B. Cooper 1801, A. C. Manwell 1803, G. W.
Delamatyr 1867. Reuben B. Curtis 1869. Stephen Smith 1870, Edward S.
McChesney 1871, Alonzo Mansfield Bullock 1872. A. C. Higgins 1874, Oliri
Curtis 1875, Henry Faville 1876, Edward G. Updike 1878, John Scott Davis
1881, William B. Robinson 1883. Samuel C. Thomas (1810-1894) in 1884,
William II. Summers 1886, Frederick C. Brayton 1888, George Veritv 1889
(died), Walter 1). Cole 1890, Jeremiah H. Hicks 1893, Stephen A. Olin 1894,
Richard K. Manaton 1898, George Vater 1900, Andrew Porter 1902. Sidney
A. Sheard 1903, George M. White 1904, Rodman W. Bosworth 1906, William
Hooton 1909. Messrs Wood, Faville, and Updike passed to the Congrega-
tional pulpit — the last-named in 1880.

EDUCATIONAL.

Dr. Joseph R. Bradway opened a private school in 1842 and taught until
the house was burned in 1845. E. D. Barber continued this school in the
Haptist church. A common school was opened in 1843 in Terrace street. A
large and well-contoured lot was soon set apart for permanent use, and from
1852 forward the present public school house has been built by successive ad-
ditions, until it has become a large and sightly building, fully equipped for
its purpose. It faces Wisconsin street and the park and looks westward to-
ward Main street. A little house had been built at the lower corner ol" the
ground and is yet remembered as the ''red school house." The earliest teach-
ers were Milo Kelse) and Enoch II. M. Bailey, as nearly as can now be- learned.
After them, and before the opening of the high school were Daniel B. Maxson,
William Hutchins, and Mr. Baker about 1855. The larger and better Ordet
of things began with Augustus Jackman Cheney in [858 and continued by
Warren D. Parker [861, Thomas Chrowder Chamberlain 1805. L. S.

266 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Sweezy 1867, R. W. Lang 1869, Melvin Grigsby about 1871, Elias Dewey
1873 to 1887, George L. Collie 1887, H. J. Bowell 1889, H. A. Adrian 1890,
J. H. Hutchinson 1892, Charles W. Rittenberg 1893, Ithe] B. Davies 1903,
Henry A. Melcher 1906. There is some confusion of dates as to the service
of Mr. Grigsby and Mr. Dewey. This school employs sixteen teachers.

PUBLIC LIBRARY.

It is not probable that Delavan was for sixty years wholly destitute of
other than private libraries, though nothing is told of them previous to 1899.
In that year the Delavan Library and Literary Association began the forma-
tion of a public library for the use of which the trifling fee of one dollar
yearly was imposed. James Aram, who died in 1897, bequeathed fifteen thou-
sand dollars to be used in providing a suitable lot and building for a free library
and to this added five thousand dollars as an endowment fund. This bequest
was to become effective at the death of his wife, Mrs. Susan C. ( Rood) Aram,
which took place in 1905. She confirmed this legacy and the city accepted
it and assumed the duty of making it perpetually operative. Alexander H.
Allyn added five thousand dollars to the library fund and the citizens con-
tributed a like sum. A most desirable lot was chosen at Walworth avenue
and Fourth street, and a building worthy of the city and the givers of the
fund was dedicated July 8, 1908. Its cost was twenty-two thousand eight
hundred dollars. It is of stone, pressed brick, and is tile-roofed. Its situ-
ation, just without the business district, is conveniently central, and affords a
minimum exposure to fires from adjacent property.

The city's yearly appropriation is one thousand seven hundred and fifty
dollars. The library opened with two thousand three hundred volumes, of
which six hundred and eighty-six were received from the library of 1899. At
present the number of volumes is about four thousand. In its first year the
circulation of books reached about twenty thousand volumes, and this rate
has not since varied materially. The first and only president of the board
of library directors is Mr. Allyn. Miss Laura F. Angell, too, has kept her
post as librarian from the opening in 1908.

WATER WORKS.

Several springs were early known and were used for supplying men and
beasts with clear, cool water. In 1892 it was found practicable to improve
them and make them available for the whole city's use. Pumps, engine, tank
and distributing main'- were supplied, municipal bonds to the amount of forty

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 2&J

thousand dollars being issued for this purpose. The source of this water
seems exhaustless and its wholesome quality has been tested by generations
of men.

FIRE DEPARTMENT.

The old fire company at once prepared itself for highest efficiency. At
present there are two hose companies and two hook and ladder companies, all
well equipped and trained for their work. The several chiefs of the tire de-
partment have been James Davidson 1894, Andrew J. Pramer 1895, Frank
M. Stevens 1897, William T. Passage 1899. The first officers under the newer
order w ere D. Bennett Barnes, foreman, with A. W. Pierce and George Fred
Heminway as assistants; David T. Gifford, engineer, with Newton O.
Francisco as assistant ; Henry Gormley, hose captain, with George H. Sturte-
vant and W. H. Decker as assistants; Charles J. Walton, secretarv; Levi J.
Xichols, treasurer. A fire company must have existed as long ago as 1861,
for the late John Baptist Bossi (1831-1911) was for thirty-three years its
treasurer.

DELAVAN GUARDS.

Sixty-one young men were organized April 26, 1880, as the Delavan
Guards, and the company was assigned to the First Regiment of the Wiscon-
sin National Guard, under Col. William B. Britton. of Janesville. Its first
officers were Fred B. Goodrich captain, Charles T. Isham first lieutenant.
Menson Yedder second lieutenant. The next captain was Horace 1.. Clark,
and the third and last was Richard J. Wilson. Governor Rusk called this,
with several other companies, into service at Milwaukee, in 1886, to pre-
serve the peace and dignity of the state when these were threatened by the
rioters of that year. The duty assigned to the company was thai of guarding
railway and manufacturers' property against lawless attack. The company's
prompt obedience to call and soldierly conduct on duty were duly recognized
at Madison, Milwaukee, and at home. Since 1889 no report has been sent to
the adjutant-general, and at or nearly that date the company must have !>een
dissolved.

CITIFS OF THE HI \l>.

The growth of the village soon overtook and surrounded it- first burying
place, near the north end of Third street. Here wvw buried the bodies of
Colonel Phoenix and of his brother and brother's wife, and one may read
there a few other nine familiar names, though most of the bodies have been
removed. It is not here known when Spring Grov 1 netery was laid out,

268 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

but it was not long before or after i860. The place chosen is on high ground,
naturally separated by a narrow valley from the homes of the living, and one
side overlooks the spread of waters locally called Lake Como. One may find
there a few graves of persons who had lived at Darien, Elkhorn, Richmond.
Sugar Creek, and Walworth; for this was for long a finer burial ground than
any in adjacent towns. Its contour and its readily drained soil has made it
practicable to build several family vaults. A mausoleum was built at the
gateway in 1911-12, containing one hundred and fifty crypts. Its materials
are Bedford stone, marble, cement, and steel, and these so designed and
wrought as to make the structure likely to defy the tooth of time for millen-
niads to come. The cost was about forty thousand dollars.

By 191 1 the conviction at Delavan was that she had outgrown the me-
diaeval passenger house at the railway station, and appeal to the state's rail-
wav commission was so far effective that in the winter of 191 1 -12 a new
house was built, across the track from the old one, with long and broad
platforms of cement, and in most ways worthier of Delavan and more cred-
itable to the railway management. It is not imposing, but it is convenient,
comfortable, and clean, and less a cave of gloom than the old building. The
street approaches are macadamized.

As at first platted the village was a small quadrangle east of the creek, to
which Walworth avenue descends not too abruptly. Village growth was
limited northwardly by the valley of the creek and the high-banked shore of
Como, and hence began eastward and southward, on a broad and easily
drained area. Then it crossed the valley, which at the avenue is not very
wide, to the more quickly-rising westward ascent, at the top of which a few
pleasant suburban blocks lie in front of the School for the Deaf, which looks
southward. Further growth carried the city eastward on the Elkhorn road
and southward across the railway tracks. Between east and smith seems the
likeliest direction for further expansion.

It has not been judged needful to mention specifically the various so-
cieties for the Furtherance of religion, morality, and culture of the liner arts,
and the many affiliated societies; nor to describe parks, public halls. Masonic
temple, and many another evidence of public spirit and enlightened taste. All
these and more in coming time may be presumed from even such inadequate
sketch as is here made of a community possessed oi the sinew-- ol action and
animated by the forward spirit id" the ages, past, present, and to come.
Delavan will at some time have its own history, compiled by one or more of
its well trusted citizens and in just proportion from the invaluable personal
knowledge of survivors of the sub-pioneer period.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

269

The village having been incorporated in 1855 an election of village
officers, April 29, 1856. resulted in choice of Leonard E. Downie as president,
William C. Allen, James Aram. YY. Willard Isham, Edmund F. Mabie,
Joseph Monell, Jr., and Trumbull D. Thomas as trustees, James Lewis clerk,
Xewton McGraw treasurer. Nicholas M. Harrington and Ebenezer I^atimer
assessors, Nicholas Thome marshal. From causes now not assignable the
official lists of village and city, as shown here, are slightly defective. From
known causes they are liable to be found slightly inaccurate. They have been
derived from the older county history, from newspaper files at Delavan and
Elkhorn and from records in the county clerk's office.

VILLAGE MEMBERS OF COUNTY BOARD.

Ebenezer Latimer

1870. '78-9, '82, '86-8, 90, '93

Xewton McGraw 1871-2

George Cotton l&73> '75-77

Elisha Matteson Sharp i§74

James Aram 1880-1

Alexander Hamilton Allyn 1883-4

Charles H. Topping 1885

Stepben Sly Babcock 1889

Taylor L. Flanders , 1891

Ansel Hastings Kendrick 1892

William Avery Cochrane 1894

Jamin II. Goodrich ^95

Arthur Mowers 1896

CITY MEMBERS OF COUNTY BOARD.

FIRST WARD.

Edward F. Welch 1897

Perry Rockwell Jackson 1898-9

1 harles W. Irish 1900-05

Daniel Edwin La Bar 1906

Herman A. Briggs 1907-8

James E. Dinsmore_j 1909-10

Fred L. Rogers 1911

Fred I). Cowles dm-'

SECOND WARD.

Arthur Bowers 1897-1904

William il. Stewart [905-7, '10-12

Ambrose B. Hare i9oN<iw

1 II [RD WARD

Alexander Hamilton Allyn-1897-1912

PRESIDENTS OF rill-; VILLAGE.

Leonard E. Downie 1856

Alanson Hamilton Barnes 1857

George Cotton i<x5^

Chauncey Betts 1859, '64

James Aram 1860/69

Stephen Sly Babcock /iSf, 1-2. '66, '-2

Ebenezei Latimer [863, '69-71

(harles Holmes Sturtevant 1865

1 harles E. < Iriffin [867

Alphonso ' .. Kellam 1868

Newton Mx< .raw [873

William Willard Isham 1X74

270 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Orlando Crosby 1875, '78 Nathaniel Wing Hoag 1882, '84-5

Dr. James B. Heminway, Ansel Hastings Kendrick 1891-3

1876-7, '80, '83, '87 William Avery Cochrane 1894

Dr. Friedr. Ludw. Von Suessmilch, Jamin H. Goodrich 1895

1879, '87-9 Capt. Albert E. Smith 1896

Henry George Hollister 1881, '86

MAYORS OF THE CITY.

Edward F. Williams elected 1897 Ambrose E Hare 1904

Alexander H. Allyn 1898 Newton O. Francisco 1906

Albert F. Smith 1899 Daniel Edwin LaBar,

1908, 1910, 1912

Until 1902 mayors were elected for one year; since that date for two
years. The village became a city in 1897 by a general statute.

VILLAGE CLERKS.

James Lewis 1856

Joseph Baker 1857

J. P.. Webb 1858

P. II. Conklin J859

Charles E. Griffin 1862

Richard M. Williams 1865-75

Fred E. Latimer 1876

Ansel Hastings Kendrick 1877-83

Edward F. Williams 1884-5

Burt Webster 1886-7

A. Harvey Lowe 1888-9

Hobart W. Sturtevant 1893-4

Charles J. Sumner ^895

William T. Passage 1896

Record wanting for i860, 1861, 1863, 1864, 1890-92.

CITY CLERKS.

Warren D. Hollister 1897

Grant Dean Harrington 1898-9

Kenneth L. Hollister 1900, '06-9

Ubert S. Parish 1903-4

Ray Powers 1910-11

There is here some uncertainty as to 1901, 1902. 1905. In 1899 Frank
M Stevens was acting clerk.

VILLAGE TREASURERS.

Newton McGraw 1856-7 '64-6 Edwin W. Phelps 1859

GeorgeM.Hew.es 1858 Benjamin D. White i860

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN. 2J 1

Harry C. Johnson 1861, '83-96 Elisha Matteson Sharp 1869-72

Sardis Brainard 1862 Frank A. Smith 1874

Isaac Young Fitzer 1879-80 William B. Munsell 1875-6

Dr. George H. Briggs 1881-2 William H. Nichols __i877-8

Edward H. Chandler 1863 Charles W. Holmes 1888

Henry C. Hunt 1867-8

Except for Mr. Holmes's term, in 1888, Harry C. Johnson will have been
treasurer for village and city from 1883 to 1914. As a citizen of Delavan
remarked. '"There is no use in anybody's tryin to run agin him.'* The name
of the treasurer for 1873 is not found.

A postoffice was established in 1837. at first to receive semi-weekly mails
from Racine. It is now an office of the second class, with city carriers, and
having five dependent free delivery rural routes. Postmasters: William
Phoenix 1837. Cyrus Brainard 1845, William C. Allen 1846, Cyrus Brainard
1847. Dr. Norman L. Gaston 1849, Nicholas M. Harrington 1853, George
Cotton 1854. James H. Mansfield 1854 (at first as substitute for Mr. Cot-
ton), Charles Smith 1861. Martin Mulville 1870, Henry C. Hunt 1886,
Hiram Terry Sharp 1890, John Passage 1894, Mrs. Adele E. Barnes 1898,
Edward Morrissey 1906. Mr. Mulville. as a soldier of the Tenth Infantry,
lost his left arm at Chickamauga. Mr. Hunt (called Captain Hunt from hav-
ing been master of a steamer on Delavan lake) lost his left leg at Peachtree
Creek, as a soldier of the Twenty-second Infantry. Mr. Passage served in a
Californian cavalry regiment, but the state census report of 1895 shows him
a second lieutenant of Second Massachusetts Infantry. Both statements may
be true.

POPULATION OF THE VILLAGE AND CITY.

i860, 1.543: 1870. 1,688; 1880, 1,798: 1890. 2,038: 1900, 2,244; 1910,
2,450. Bv wards, in 1910: First ward. 778; second ward. 756: third ward,
916.

CHAPTER XXIV

TOWN OF EAST TROY.

The town of Troy, as established in 1838, included two government
townships. It was divided March 21, 1843, an(l lts eastern half, town 4
north, range 18 east, became East Troy. The town of Mukwonago lies next
north and the town of Waterford is next east. The slightly uneven surface
of this town is generally about eight hundred and twenty-five feet above sea-
level. Honey creek comes into East Troy at section 18, crosses sections 29,
28, 21, 22, 23, 24, leaves the county to return to the southeast corner of sec-
tion 36, and drains the eastern part of Spring Prairie. A branch comes nut
of section 5 of Spring Prairie, winds across sections 32, 33, 28, 27, 26 and
ends its course in section 2^. Potter's lake, sections to, 11, with connected
ponds in sections 13, 14, discharge their little surplus into Honey creek at
section 24.

The group of lakes now named Beulah lies in sections 4. 5, 8. <). 16, 17. 18.
The outlet of these lakes finds its way through Mukwonago to Fox river.
Lake Beulah station, Wisconsin Central Railway, in section 12. is a bit more
than three miles from the namesake lakes, eighty-five miles from Chicago,
and thirty-live miles (by rail) from Milwaukee. These lakes have long been
known to local campers, boaters, fishers, and swimmers, — the latter favored
by the irregular shore lines. At Hately's Hay (or Brooks Cove) on the upper
lake, in section 17, the bottom drops away rapidly to the depth of sixty-
seven feet within a lew rods of shore, and for more than a quarter-mile
toward the Opposite shore the water is sixty or more feet deep. At other
points on the lower lakes bottom is found at forty to fifty-four feet depth. A
considerable part of the whole area, however, is but ten feet deep. The little
companion lake, named Ainu or East Troy, about a half-mile eastward, in
section id. is lint scant seventeen feet deep. A long, irregular island of
about thirty-five acres in area is owned and lias been improved and supplied
with convenient buildings by the 1 Tnivcrsity of St. Louis. About two hun-
dred and fifty priests and students, escaping tin- discomforts of the city, find
here a quiet and healthful summer vacation. There are also other non-resi-
dent owners of lakeside property.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 2J$

The land area of the town is 20,995 acres, the village not included. The
valuation in 1910 was $1,590,700 — average value $75.7(1 per acre. The crop
acreage for 1910 was: Barley. -?jj ; corn. 3,279; ha\ field. [,802; oats, 2,386;
potatoes. 109: rye. 214; wheat. 94. The assessed valuation of town and vil-
lage was 4.77 per cent, of the valuation for the whole county. The federal
census from [850 to 1900 inclusive was. taken for town and village together:
1850. [,318; i860, 1.717: E870, 1.431: [880, 1.407: [890, [,406; [900,
1,513. In 1910 the poppulation of the town alone was 925.

FIRST SETTLERS.

The tirst actual settler in East Troy, Mr. Roberts, had sold a recently
made claim in Troy when he came, in the spring of 1836, to the north bank
of Honey creek, in section 29. near the site of the present village, and was
soon joined by Asa Wood. They built a cabin and worked about a year
to assemble materials for a saw-mill. Then Jacob Burgit came that way.
bought their rights, and built the null, in another year he began to produce
mill-stuff for framed houses in the village and elsewhere. Mr. Blood passed
over to the town of Sugar (reek, and Mr. Roberts passed from the annals
of the town and the county. In that first year of East Troy came also
Cyrus Cass to section 2 1 . Daniel 1'. Griffin to section 20, Jacob Haller to
section 35. Allen Harrington to section 21. Lyman llill to section 3. Austin
Mc( racken to the village site 1 and in 1839 was licensed to keep a tavern),
Oliver Rathburn to section 2. The next year brought Gorham Hunker.
Jacob Burgit. Dr. William M. Gorham, Gaylord Graves, Benjamin and Elias
H. Jennings, John A. Larkin, Henry Powers, Dr James Tripp, lames W.
Vail, William Weed and Benjamin Whitcomb.

Not all who came in the first few years remained long enough to leave
distincl trace in record or clear impression in memory. Lucius Mien, the
I "liatin brother-. Stephen field. Wilder M . Howard, Martin Pollard and fohn
F. I'otter were among the men of 1838; Seth Beckwith and S. Buel Edwards
were of those of [839. Among notable arrivals were those of Dr, Daniel
Allen. Capt. George Fox and Sewall Smith. Among the departures were
that of Mary A 1 Spoor), wife of Lucius Mien. November is. 1838, for
a better world; and that of Doctor Tripp for his new village of Whitewater.
He built a saw-mill in [838 at the Beulah outlet, and soon found finer-.

Patentees, not above named, of land within the town were: Thomas
Albiston, Robert Uigier, lames w. Bartholf, limn Bear, Alexander Brush

fi8)

274 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Beardsley, Nelson Beckwith, John Beers, Harvey Birchard, Hiram Brewster,
Homer and Seymour Brooks. William Brownley, L. Warren Burgess, John
Cameron, John Chadwick, Sherod Chapman, Isaac Drake, Joseph H. and
William P. Edwards. Chauncey Eggleston, Henry Moore Filley, James and
John Fraser, Jacob Funk, Joseph Gillard, John Hardy, William Haynes,
Jeremiah Haynes Heath, Simon Heath, Seth Williams Higgins. John
Hollenbeck, Elliott Hulbert, Isom Ingalls, John P. Johnson, James Keeler,
Erastus M. Kellogg, Robert Keyes, Ignatz Kuenzle, Frederick Kyburz,
Charles Levanway. Patrick McGee, Darius J. McPherson, James B. Martin,
Urban D. Meacham, Warren D. Meeker, Joseph Stephen Morey, Benjamin
Newcomb, Philip Wheeler Nichols, Elijah Norton, Michael O'Regan, William
Perry, Albert L. Pierce, John Randall. George Alex'r Ray. William Richard-
son, Burrill Rood. John Schwartz. Israel Rufus Scott, George Smith, John
Syng Spoor, John Sprague, Charles Taylor, Robert Black Tedford, Daniel
Thompson, Gordon Manwaring Vinal, David Whiteman, Jonah Wicker.
Ambrose Wilkes. John Bernhardt Wilmer, Erastus Benjamin Wright.

Besides these the census of 1842 names, as heads of families: Brooks
Bowman, Albert Breens, William Charm. Stillman Dewey, Hersey Estes,
Delanson and Reuben Griffin, Lyman Harvey, Robert Hotchkiss, Roderick
Kellogg, Samuel Kyburz, James S. Marcy, William Mead, Orrin Moffatt,
Hiram Perry, Stillman Pollard, William Porter, Sarah Rose. Abel Sperry.
Sylvanus Spoor, William Trumbull. Isaac Webber, Abel Ward Wright.

Robert Augier (1785-1862) bad wife Abigail (1786-1802) and left
descendants of his own and other names.

Seth Beckwith came early, sold in 1842 to Abel Sperry, and passed
northward. Nol a near relative of Nelson.

|obn Beers 1 [803-1885), a native of Pennsylvania, came to section 24
with wife, Mary ("rites | [820-1892).

Homer and Seymour Brooks were sons of David and wife Catharine
Simpson, of Ovid, Xew York. Homer, born in [819. is yet living in section
17. near the Beulah lake-group. In 1840 he married Almira, daughter of
Jacob Burgit and Mary Gardner. Seymour Brooks 1 [82] 18112) married
Sus-in i [826-1898), daughter of Peter Bulman. His farm was in section ;.
near the foot of the lakes. Both oi these men were carlv and active in the im-
provemenl of live stock, anil their work praised them.

Cyrus Cass 1 [812-92) married Elizabeth B. Thomas 1 1825 [899). His
farm, an almost lordlv domain, lay both sides of Honey creek, sections 21, 28.
( >f his children, Clarence W. died in service in the Third Cavalry, and Edwin
I nomas is a lawver at Whitewater.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 2/5

Joseph H. Edwards (1781-1853) and wife, Abigail Buel (1 790-1867),
came about 1840 to section 15. Their son, Simon Buel ( 1815-1893), was
born in Broome county. New York; married, first, Elizabeth Ann (1818-
1881), daughter of Isaac I". Wheeler, in 1838: moved to Whitewater in
1878. where he married again. He was a good tanner and a worker in
and for the Count) Agricultural Society.

Chauncey Eggleston (1795-1848) was born in Connecticut. His wife,
Chloe. was a daughter of Jonathan Coe. Their daughter, Charlotte Coe
Eggleston. was born in 1827 and died in 1897.

Capt. George Fox ( 1 701- 1864) was a descendant of that John Fox
whose tremendous work, in two or three folio volumes, entitled "Acts and
Monuments of the Church." by powerful condensation became "Fox's Book
of Martyrs." and was well read by eight or ten generations of pious men and
women. Two daughters of Captain Fox were each in succession wife of
Hon. John F. Potter.

James Fraser ( 1787- 1876) and wife Elizabeth (1782-1867) came from
one of the Orkneys, and bought land in section 26. Of their children,
Alexander. Charles and John were long active in town affairs, and Margaret
became Mrs. Orlando Jennings.

Doctor Gorham came from Milwaukee, lived a few years at East Troy,
and returned to the city.

Jacob Haller I 1809-1894), a native of canton of Aargau. Switzerland,
came to America in 1833. and to section 35 of this town in 1838. His wife
was Elizabeth I-".. 1 [813-1894). A daughter was wife of Hon. Frank Fraser.

Jeremiah Haynes Heath, with Simon Heath, came to section 36. He
married Hannah F McDuffie in [842.

Wilder Mack Howard (1821-1910), son of Joseph and Rosanna, was
born at Andover, Vermont. He was apprenticed to John A. Larkin, a shoe-
maker and an early settler. His first wife. Electa L., daughter of Timothy
and Sally Howard, died in 1878. I lis second wife was Elizabeth fountain.
He was a soldier of Company F. First Heavy Artillery

Rev. Erastus Martin Kellogg (born 1815), a descendant in lit'tli gen-
eration from Deacon Samuel Kellogg ami Sarah Merrill, was apparently a
non-resident investor. Roderick, hi- father'- third cousin, was horn in
170'' ami married Sally Taylor. Of two sons ami -i\ daughters, none are
known to have remained in the county.

Frederick Kyburz (1809-1892) came from Switzerland. Hi- wife.
Louisa (born 1822). was bom in Hanover. Daniel Kyburz, born in 1777
and living in i860, was probably his father and Mr-. Jacob Haller as prob-
ably hi- sister. This family lived in section 14.

276

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Martin Pollard ( 1813-1895), son of Joseph Pollard and Martha Martin.
married July 9, 1840, Rachel (1810-1895). daughter of William Powers
and Susan Cooper, and settled in section 2. Rachel died March 29th and
Martin followed April 1st. One funeral service committed them to the burial
ground at Mukwonago.

The early settlers included several of the most capable and successful
farmers and stock breeders of the county and the movement for organizing
a county agricultural society began with men of East Troy and their relatives
and neighbors of Troy. While the trade with Milwaukee was overland and
sometimes difficult and tedious, the town's position gave an advantage, by
a few blessed miles, over men of other towns. When placed between two
railway lines, with little direct advantage from either, the East Trojans sat
not on their plow-beams sadly, but made the best of their not wholly unhappy
situation until the Wisconsin Central Railway Company made a station at
Beulah and gave them a direct way to Chicago. This line passes from Honey
Creek by sections 25, 24, 13, 12, 1, 2, leaving the town near Mukwonago,
about six miles of its tracks within the town of East Troy. The electric
line from Milwaukee passes by way of Mukwonago across sections 2, 3. 10.
9, 16, 20 to East Troy village.

The town records have been quite generally in competent hands and are
accessible.

CHAIRMEN OF TOWN BOARD.

( laylord ( rraves 1843

Sewall Smith 1844

Gorham Bunker 1845. 53~4

Austin Carver 1846, '56-7

(laylord Craves 1847, '41)

Joel Pound 1848

Henry B. Clark 1850-2, '58

John Fox Totter 1855

William Burgit 1859-63, '"j^,

•77-80, '82
Edwin Maker 1864

Mender () Babcock --1865-6,

"68-9, '72

Dr. Caleb Sly Blanchard 1867

Joseph W. Church 1870

Alexander Kraser 1871. '73-4, '76

I larold I I. Rogers _ 1881, '95

Augusl Wilmer 1883-8

Frank L. Fraser 1889-94, '96-7

Lawrence Clanc) 1898-9

Charles \. Mulaney 1900-6

William Clancy 1907-9

William 1 leers 191 0-12

ASSOCIATE SUPERVISORS.

1 leni \ \dams 1863

I <lw in Baker 1801-2

James W. Bartholf 1846. '48

Jacob C. Bayer 1896

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN,

277

William Beers 1808-9

Darius G. Billings ^57

Homer Brooks 1874. '82

James S. Brooks 1898-9, 1905-6

Seymour Brooks 1871

George Bunker 1852

Gorham Bunker 1843-4, '57-8

William Burgit 1849. '53> 55

Christopher Page Farley Chafin
1875-8. -8o-i. '83-5

Frank' G. Chafin 1886

John P. Chafin [887-S

Luther Chamberlain 1866

Joseph W. Church 1871

.A T atthew Coleman 1 849

James M. Crosswaite 19 10-12

Adam C. Deist 1892-5

Stillman Dewey 1843

Henry Dickerman 1897

Alexander Dowman 1865

Loren J. Fdwards 1851.

Simon Buel Fdwards 1846-7. "54

Stephen Field 1843

Stephen I-'. Field 1860-2

Alexander Fraser 1863. '68-70

Charles Fraser 1 903

Frank I,. Fraser 1886

John Fraser 1859

Jacob Funk 1850

David Holmes 181 k i

Johannes M. Hunter 1877-8]

Washington Sidney Keats 1891

Jared L. Knapp 1855. '64

Stephen Knapp 1847

Louis H. Krosch 1898-1902

William Mcintosh 1852-4, '~2

Urban Duncan Meacham 1845

Charles S. Miller__ 1875-6. '83-5. "87

Benjamin F. Mitchell 1908-9

Charles A. Mulanev 1886-7

John Xott 1889. '94

Daniel W. Patterson 1872

Wright Patterson 1856

Drake II. Phillips __iNo-

Robert Porter 1890, '92-3

Joel Pound 1847

Nathan P. Randall 1851

George Alexander Ray 1850

Arthur Rogers 1905-6

Charles Schader 1 904

Henry Shields 1 890-1. '95

James M. Stillwell 1859

Enos H. Stone i860 7

John W. Stoney_. 1868-70

Frank A. Swoboda 1910-12

Hiram A. Taylor 1882

Emery Thayer 1845

Jesse Tombleson 1858. '65

David Van Zandt 1851

FJmer Watrous 190 1-2

John Weldon 1903-4

Abel Ward Wright [844

TOWN CLERKS.

Sew all Smith T843- '45

A lender O. Babcock 1844.

•46. '48, 60

Edward II. Ball 1847

Wilder Mack Howard 1849, '55

George II. Smith 1856

Gregon Bentley 1851, '53-4.

'56, '58

Augustus C. Brady 1852

Hiram J, Cowles 1857

278

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

Newton King 1859

Joseph W. Church 1861

Henry B. Clark 1863-4

Sidney A. Tullar 1865-7

Washington Sidney Keats

1886-84, '94-7
William Goodrich Keats 1885. '92

Simeon K. Craves '893

Charles H. Zinn 1898-1900

Charles F. Hunter 1901-02, '04

C. Elmer Himebauch 1903

John Uhrlettig 1905-6

Charles E. Altenberg 1907-8

Joseph Henry Heimbauch—1909-12

TOWN TREASURERS.

Jacob Burgit 1843-5. 48

Henry B. Clark 184(1. '49

Joseph Edwards 1847

Seymour Brooks 1850

George Edwards 1851

Emery Thayer 1852

Lucius S. Moody T853~4

Thomas Burgit 1855

Thomas Russell 185'!, '61

Joseph W. Church 1857

James Palmer 1858

Pitt M. Clark T859

Matthew Coleman i860

Ceorge Bentley 1862

Simpson Dartt 1863

William Goodrich Keats__i864,

'69. '73-4

Charles M. Millard 1865

John W. Stoney 1866

Harvey Ambler 1867. '70

George H. Smith 1871-2, 'j^,

Washington Sidney Keats 1876

William H. Meadows 1877

James Monaghan 1878-93

Robert M. Lacy 1894, '96-7

Harry Dickerrnan 1895

Thomas W. O'Connor 1898-1900

Vrthur Dickerrnan 1901

Richard Brownlee, JY. 1902-6

Daniel Speight 1907-0

John Speight 1910-12

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

. Mender O. Babcock [861-5

Sc\ mour Brooks 1860-0,

'78-84, '87-9

Thomas M Burns [896-7

James Child 1866-7

1 .aw rcnce Clancy 1 888-9

James ML Crosswait 1007-8

William M. Daniels 1898-9

Charles Fraser 1873-81, '84 6

Frank 1.. Fraser 1881-3. '93

Simeon EC. Drives 1886

Edwin K. Dicks 1897

Washington S. Keats .1866, '68-84

Louis II. Kxosch [89]

James D. Merrill 1867-9

William Miller 1 8=;i)-7}

Riley V Spencer [859

Aha Slelibms 1NS7

Elisha Stillman [860-4

Enos II. Stone 18(16-72

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

-7"

Sidney B. Tullar 1860. '62, David P. Webster 1872-8

'64-6, '71-96 Perry Welch 1896-7, 1906-7

John Uhrlettig 1900-' — John J. White [864

There are five school districts wholly within the town, a joint district
with Troy and one with Waterford. The postoffice at Lake Beulah, of the

fourth class, has two rural delivery routes.

VILLAGE OF EAST TROY.

Jacob Burgit and Austin McCracken laid out their village in 1847. on
each side of the territorial road from Milwaukee to Janesville, making Main
street of that part of the highway lying within village limits. Running from
its eastern beginning nearly southwest by westerly (making an angle of
$8y20 with the meridian line), this street makes an angle of 1570 at its
Church street crossing and leaves the western limit at an angle of 8y2° with
an east and west line. This one irregularity lends a slightly metropolitan
aspect to the village plat, the other streets lying in the direction of section
lines. The site was well chosen, affording short drainage lines, and the
soil permitting dry cellars of any desired depth. Lots were sold on easiest
terms to buyers, and as there were already a few dwellings and stores, the
village had a healthy and hopeful infancy.

In the first period of railway building one line from the lake to the river
parsed by ten miles northward and another about as far southward, and the
Milwaukee & Beloit Company, in 1857. brought but delusive hope to villagers.
Several years later a line from Chicago crossed the township five miles east-
ward, and the branch line from Elkhorn to Eagle is nearly as far westward.
East Troy for more than forty years lay in a rail-less area. The village
worked, hoped, waited, and respected itself, and at last rejoined the long
lost world in 1907 by way of an electric line to Milwaukee. hi spite -1
this long want of railway connection the village was always fair in the
eyes of visitors, and its quickened prosperity has added something to its
earlier attractions.

William Burgit built a grist-mill in 1S44. near the village. In [848 he
sold it to George M. Cousins, Peter A. Cramer and Gideon Garrett. The
next year Mr. Cousins left tin- firm and the mill was sold hack to Mr. Burgit.
from whom it passed in [853 to !K-in\ I:. Evans. I d vard II. Ball and [ohn
W. Denison bought it at a sheriff's -ale in [862, in I sol 1 il in 1863 to Byron
Brown. William I) Smith bought it in f866, Jonas IL ami William II. Fox

280 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

in 1869, Charles F. Zartrow in 1870, Charles A. Schmidt in 1876. No
further change of ownership is found in record. The mill is yet in operation
for local custom.

CHURCHES.

Ten memhers constituted a Baptist society, Octoher 5, 1842. These
were Elvira, Irene and William Duncan, Mrs. Elizaheth Ann (Wheeler)
Edwards, Gaylord and Nancy Graves, Horace Smith. Eliza Sperry. Gilbert
and Mary Waters. The line of pastors was Aha Burgess 1842, James
Delaney 1845. Milo B. Tremain. James Squier, George W. Gates, Peter
Conrad. Orra Martin ("temporary). Amos Weaver i860. Daniel Dye 1861,
E. L. Scofield 1805. C. J. B. Jackson 1868. James Delaney 1869, W. A.
Rupert [879-82, Wilbur W. Conner 1883. David P Phillips 1886. There
were intervals, short and long', during which the pulpit was supplied from
neighboring churches, or was vacant. Mr. Phillips died July 5, 1886, and
hut occasional service was held until Rev. David L. Holbrook came on April
4. [898, and with that day closed the record of this once strong church, so
reduced by deaths and removals. Soon after this the building became a hall
for the Modern Woodmen. In 1905 the remaining memhers received formal
letters of dismissal.

Before 1 848 Rev. Thomas Morrissey and others of the Catholic Faith
came from Burlington, Lake Geneva, and Waterford to hold service at
private houses. In that year Vicar-General Kundig ministered similarly, and
after him Rev. Matthias Gernbauer. In 1854 a church was built at a cost of
twelve hundred dollars. In 1855 Rev. Sebastian Seif became, for a few
months, the first resident priest of St. Peter's. After him was Michael
Haider 1855, Thomas Keenan 1857, James Stehle [859. Lawrence N. Kenne)
r86o, George I.. Willard 1864. fohn Casey [866, !■".. A. Craves [868, 11. F.
Pairbank [869, Thomas Bergen 1870. James Fitzgibbon [876, J. Eugene
Mini 1N81, Hugo Victor 1884. John II. Keller 1887. John T. O'Lean [893,
Charles Schmid [896, John Joseph Weinhoff in the same year and until now.
Of these, the dates of birth and death are shown for Father Bergen 1844-79.
Fitzgibbon [827-97, Haider [820-85, Keenan [829-80, Kcnncv 7836-70.
Kundig [805-79, Willard [836-80. In 1870 a substantial church was built
at eost id" sixteen thousand dollars, and a school house in [889 at cost of
four thousand dollars. The somewhat variable membership is now about
one hundred twenty families. St. Peter's cemetery, laid out at a well-chosen
point in section 17. nearly two miles from the village, was for main- years
the resting place of the Catholic dead id" other towns, even as far a\\a\ as
Elkhorn.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 281

Mrs. Mary (Gardner) Burgit, Elizabeth Chafin, Stillman and Caroline
Dewey, Amasa, Arabv. and Clarissa A. Hotchkiss, William Trumbull, James
W. and Rebecca A. Vail, William and Elizabeth Weed met at Mr. Yail's,
June 22. 1839. to form a Presbyterian society. (Within two years Mr.
Hotchkiss died and Miss Clarissa had become Mrs. Trumbull.) A church
was built in 1849. '" [855 the society became Congregational, and in 1856
began to build a new church. This work was suspended from 1N57 to 1871
and finished in 1872. Its clergy list is: Lemuel Hall 1839, David A.
Sherman 184L Cyrus E. Rosenkrans 1845. Charles Morgan 1852, Avelyn
Sedgwick 1858, Miles Doolittle 1859. Charles Morgan 1X60. Hanford Fowle
1X74. Asher W. Curtis 1X7N, Josiah Beardsley iK8i . Augustus J. Hayner
[888, George Mackey Whyte 1895, Thomas W. Harbour 1897. S. Wilbur
Bloom 1 901. Joseph Herbert 1002. Walter C. Graf 1904, Albert E. Pauly
(unordained) 190S. Isaac P>. Tracy 1910. A parsonage is part of the church
property.

In 1874 fifteen families organized as St. John's Evangelical Lutheran
society. In 1881 it was reorganized as St. Paul's and the society bought the
old Congregational building. L'ntil 1894 the pulpit was supplied from the
church at Elkhorn. In that year Rev. Gustav Schmidt became resident pastor,
and was yet there in February, 1912. In 1903 a brick church was built at
cost of eight thousand dollars, and a parsonage has been supplied.

Early in 1838 Rev. Salmon Stebbins held the quarterly meeting for the
Aztalan mission at Daniel P. Griffin's house and there organized the Methodist
society of East Troy, with the Griffin families. Benjamin Jennings. Mrs.
Austin McCracken, John S. and Mariette (Bivins) Spoor as members. Mrs.
Rebecca A. Vail and Mrs. Elizabeth Weed. Presbyterians, joined temporarily.
A log house served for a meeting place until early in 1840 when a framed
building took its place and for the next ten years was used more or less h\
other societies as well.

The several pastors have been in nearly the follow Jul; order: Samuel
Pillshury 1839, Jesse TIalstead. James P. Flanders, James McKean, 1 >.
Worthington. Leonard F. Moulthrop, William Hanson, Henry Whitehead.
Nathaniel Swift, M. L. Read. John J. Gallup. J. Bean, \I. Butler, Jonathan
M. Snow. Joseph C. Dana. William M. Osborn, Harrison V. Train. William
F. Delap, Hiram H. Hersey, S. Watts. Russell P. Lawton, John G. Pingree,
Thomas Wilcox. Thomas ('. Wilson, Rufus Cooley [864, Isaac Seniles [867,
W. W. Painter i860. Lafayette F. Cole 1873, Thomas Peep, Samuel Rey-
nolds, J. D. Wilson, A. Porter, Wallace J. Olmstead [880, Samuel C. Thomas
1681, RossiterC. Parsons [882, Robert Davidson [884, Thomas Potter [886,

282 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

William Moyle 1890. John Albert Collinge 1895, John M. Woodward 1901,
William Dawson 1903, Alpheus W. Triggs 1908, Amos L. Tucker 1910.

Mrs. Austin McCracken and Artemisia McLeod, her sister, Mrs. Rebecca
A. Vail, and other pious women began their Sunday school work in 1838,
with John S. Spoor as superintendent. Until the formation of church societies
this work was non-sectarian.

Mrs. Vail opened a boarding school for girls at her house, in 1839,
joining religious to secular instructions. She was excellently qualified for
this work and she is said to have drawn pupils from as far away as Milwaukee.
She was also a pioneer teacher at Geneva.

Louisa Augier (who in 1842 became Mrs. Charles Taylor) began as a
public school teacher in 1839, for some years in the chapel building. A
schoolhouse was built in 1846, and about 1854 a new one took its place.
This, with extensions of house and grounds, is wrorthy of the village. The
value of the school property, including four acres of ground, may be about
fifteen thousand dollars. This school has for many years done good high
school work, and it now employs seven teachers.

In 1839 S. Buel Edwards built his blacksmith shop opposite a corner of
the park, so well framed and so large that with a little outward improvement
and much inner alteration and adjustment it is now a sightly and convenient
town hall and clerk's office, with an occasionally useful calaboose in its rear.

Oak Ridge, a scant mile from the village, became in 1876 the care of
an organized cemetery association. It is well laid out and kept in order, and
has become the resting place of Hon. John F. Potter and most of his family,
and of many another early settler. St. Peter's lies little more than a half-mile
away.

NEWSPAPERS.

Francis 1). Craig began in August, 1N70. to publish the East Troy
Gazette, sold it about a year later, bought it again in 1S81 and discontinued
it about 1882. He also published monthly the American Merino in the
interest of sheep breeders of East Troy, Caldwell's Prairie, and adjacent
towns of three counties. In [885 and 1886 Wilbur ( \. Weeks published
experimentally an Easl Tro) edition of the Delavan Republican, named the
Star, with Simeon i\. Graves and Washington S. Keats in turn as local editors.
In [893 Samuel K. \dams published the East Tray \'c;cs and sold it in [896
to Oscar R. Kurzrok, who has made it permanent. I lis equipment, which
includes ;i power-presS) is modern and good, and his newspaper and his job
work prove him a real printer. Politically the Nezvs is independent, but is not
a "common scold."

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 283

VILLAGE ORGANIZATION.

At a special election, May 26, 1900, by a vote of one hundred and five to
fifty-three, the village decided to organize its government agreeable to the
general statutes. Officers were chosen June 23d : Trustees, Richard Brown-
lee, Alva Lumsden, Owen H. Marshall. Anthony Noblet, Charles \V. Smith,
Oscar F. Winne ; marshal, Edwin R. Hicks; street commissioner, Nathan J.
Randolph ; health officer. Dr. Orlo S. Canright.

Presidents: August Wilmer 1900-3. Lawrence Clancy 1904-5, Thomas
W. O'Connor 1906-9, Paul Schwartz 1910-12.

Clerks: Oscar R. Kurzrok 1900, Fred H. Coburn 1901-3. Leonard E.
Rice 1904-7, Washington S. Keats 1908-11, Oscar R. Kurzrok 1912.

Treasurers: Leonard E. Rice 1900-1, Edward Rohleder 1902-6, Sey-
mour E. Marshall 1907, Walter C. Dickerman 1908-10, John Weldon 1 < > 1 1 ,
Henry Gaskell 19 12.

Assessors: William G. Keats 1900-1, Nathan J. Randolph 1902-12.

Members of county board of supervisors : Washington S. Keats 1900,
Adam C. Deist 1901-2, Lawrence Clancy 1903. Charles H. Zinn 1904-7.
Lawrence Clancy 1908-12.

POSTOFFICE.

It is told that the first postoftice in the township was established in 1839,
at the house of Henry Powers, in section 3, with John F. Potter as postmaster.
In 1S41 the office was transferred to Sewall Smith"s store, at the village.
About 1844 it was discontinued for a short time and restored, still under
Air. Smith. Edward H. Ball was appointed in 1848. John D. Hawes [853,
Thomas Russell about 1854, Mr. Smith again in 1861. Henry B. Clark [866,
Joseph W. Church i860. Perry O. Griste in the same year, Rudolph Haber
nicht 1894, Mr. Griste [898, Edwin R. Hicks 1902, Benjamin F. Schwartz
[911. October 1, njir. this postoffice was passed from the fourth to the
third class, and the postmaster's -alary became eleven hundred dollars.

PUBLIC HOUSES.

Austin McCracken built his 1<>" house in [836 and made it serviceable
as an inn. Emery Thayer bought the place in [842 and in [845 built a house
of two stories on the same site, and this is yet a pari of the Easl Troy I louse
Other owners have been Timothy Mower 1855, Loren J. Edwards [856, S.
Buel Edwards [862, Orson B. Morse [864, Henr) B. I lark- [868. In [872

284 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Mr. Clark's son-in-law, Harold H. Rogers, became his partner and at his
death, in 1875. Mr. Rogers was his successor. Later proprietors have been
Oscar B. Rogers. J. Frank Brooks, and E. Louis Brooks, who now sits at the
receipt of custom. Besides these are remembered, with very uncertain dates,
as tenants if not owners, Austin Wright, Seymour Brooks, William Hare.
Joseph H. Edwards, Alansori Beckwith, Charles W. Smith, and James F.
Jude. Clark & Rogers bought an old church and joined it to the hotel.
Thus, the East Troy House is a two-fold relic of the village infancy.

Samuel Bradley built a cobble-stone house of three stories, between
1846 and [849, named it the Buena Vista House, and occupied it for a few
years. This property has changed ownership several times. Among its
owners and occupants have been Daniel J. Kees about i860, Richard Hotton.
lames H. Hall. Wright J. Larkin, and Messrs. Primmer. Justin and Churchill
severally. It is now no lunger used as a public house.

BUSINESS ITEMS.

Sewall Smith built a store and displayed a stock of goods in 1841. Austin
Wright began competition in 1842. and within a short time Cyril L. Oatman
and ex-Sheriff Mallory. from Geneva, combined these two enterprises. Other
early general dealers distinctly known were Alonzo Piatt (once of Elkhorn),
Henry 11. Austin with John 1). Dorrance. and Joseph R. Stone with variable
partnerships, as Peter S. Markham, Hiram J. Cowles, and Joseph H. Hurlbut.
Later dealers have been Jonathan Bailey. E. K. Barker, Adam C. Deist, Perry
O. Criste. Wilder M. Howard, George and William Meadows, Charles W.
Smith, llobart A. Tullar, August and Bernhardt Wilmer.

Ilenn II. Austin, |uhn P. Chafin, William T. Donaldson, Alexander and
Frank L. Fraser, Perry 0. Griste, Walter C. Hatch. Harold H. Rogers,
Charles W. and George II. Smith organized the State Bank of East Troy,
November 10. [892, and began business on the following New Year's day,
with Rogers as president, Griste vice-president, Chafin cashier. Mr. Rogers
died March 23, [897, and in December Mr. Griste became president and
George Meadows vice-president. Edward B. Rohleder was then chosen
assistant cashier. In September, H|ii. Mr. Griste retired from the bank
and Mr. Chafin became president. Mr. Rohleder vice-president (and assistant
cashier), ami Henry E. Henry, from Kew askum. cashier. The capital of this
bank is thirty thousand dollars.

October 25, t')i 1, the stockholders of the farmers' and Merchants' State
Rank chose directors and officers: lames S. Brooks, John Brophy, lames

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN". 285

and John B. Crosswaite, Albert Jude, James F. Jude (president), Dr. Timothy
J. O'Leary (vice-president), .Matthew J. Powers (cashier), Frank J. Rice,
Charles Taft, and Valentine Zimmerman, and named Leonard Martin as
assistant cashier. In February, 1912, workmen were laying the deep concrete
foundation walls of a new building for this bank.

Friday. December 13, 1907, the villagers saw the arrival from and
return to Milwaukee of electric cars, and themselves restored to easy and
frequent connection with that greater world which their parents and grand-
parents had left seventy years before.

A village system of water-works began in 1908 to afford reasonable
protection from fires, and bonds were issued to the amount of thirteen thou-
sand five hundred dollars. A well was bored six hundred ninety-one feet in
depth, reaching water enough for present use, at the least; and pumping
works with steel tower and tank provided. The water rises in the well within
about twenty-one feet of the surface. The drill passed through ninety-two
feet of drift, three feet of limestone, and thirty-six feet into St. Peter's sand-
stone. In 1 910 the population was 673.

CHAPTER XXV.

CITY OF ELK HORN".

John Starr Rockwell was in 1836 a clerk in the government's newly
established land office at Milwaukee. He learned there, officially and extra-
officially, something of use to himself and to his brother Le Grand, then in
his twenty -fifth year, who had come from Butternuts, Xew York, with a
fair amount of means, to look well about him for a suitable village site. The
brothers, with Horace Coleman, formed a partnership for the settlement of
a county seat. In February, 1837, Le Grand and Air. Coleman left Milwaukee,
but not in quest of mill-site, lakeside, or other special gift of nature to man.
They knew by common report that good land could be found in nearly every
section of southeastern Wisconsin, and the immediate object of their search
was a township corner-stake. Though as yet unnamed and unorganized.
Walworth count)- was already more than a bare possibility as to its position,
form, and dimensions; for, men of many political and speculative devices
gathered at Milwaukee in the earliest existence of the territory of Wisconsin.

These two speculative geometers found the embryo county's centre of
gravity in a bit of bog, at the meeting-point of four townships. Then they
returned for materials, tools, and supplies for settlement. Mr. Coleman's
faith in the enterprise grew lukewarm and he withdrew from it. and soon
appeared at Spring Prairie. Mr. Rockwell formed another partnership quite
readily, and on February -'7th was at the pivotal stake again, lie came for
himself and brother; Milo Edwin Bradley for his father. Daniel Edwin;
Albert Ogden for Lewis John Higby, who afterward bought in section g of
Richmond. \t Spring Prairie they induced Hollis Latham, who had lieen
there a few weeks, to go with them The company pre-empted four quarter-
sections and built a cabin in the * ieneva quarter. Mr. Latham chose his home
in the same quarter, while Rockwell and Ogden made theirs in the Delavan
quarter. The company yielded its claim to the Sugar Greek quarter in [839,
when the county commissioners selected a quarter-section for the county's
buildings,

It was thought that until it should be needed for county-seal and metro-
politan use- the company's square mile, as a greal dairy-farm, would soon bring
fair returns for the money, work, and hope invested. In this these men were

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 28/

too far-sighted by forty years; but their city is now at the centre of one of
the leading dairying counties of the state, and is a shipping-point for a much
larger area than the company's square mile. In May a framed house was built
of Geneva-sawn oak, eighteen feet by thirty feet, one and one-half stories
high. During court terms this became a boarding house, but not until Mi-
Latham had married Daniel E. Bradley's daughter. Mrs. Lemira Lewis. The
settlement of the proposed county-seat was in a special way confirmed at the
new house by the birth of Le Grand Latham. January 4. 1839. But the young
city had not been childless. Mrs. Latham had a daughter of her first
marriage, Elizabeth Ann Lewis ( 1 828-1888). who in 1848 married Phineas
C. (1824-1887). son of Andrew Gilbert and Calmy Butler. Henry, youngest
of the large family of Daniel E. Bradley and Betsey Sturges, was a year or
two older than his niece. Milo E. Bradley and wife Nancy had seven children,
though not all of them as yet born. This family soon settled in section 1 of
Geneva, and some years later moved to La Crosse county.

Colonel Phoenix, crossing the prairie southeast of the Rockwell settle-
ment, had found a pair of antlers which he hung on a tree to mark a point
in his trail between Spring Prairie and Delavan. This slight circumstance
soon named the prairie, the village, and the northwestern quarter of the
county. This extension of the name sometimes makes it difficult or impossible
to determine whether persons named in other than land records were or were
not of the village.

In 1838 Sheldon Walling (1705-1875) and wife, Anna Peets (1798-
[875), came from western Xew York to section 7 of Geneva. The next
year Mr. Walling, having become sheriff, moved into the village, where he
and his sons Fred and George went into retail business. The father was a
tanner. In 1839 Edward Elderkin and Horatio S. Winsor came to practice
law. Elderkin bought a farm in the south half of the Geneva section, hi
1840 Moses Bartlett, William Coulson, John- Hall, Henry II. Hartson.
Hudson Van Brunt, and George Watson came, bul nol all of them to leave
of themselves a clear memory. In 1841 Richard Beals 1 17N1 1S551 and
son Isaac F. ( 1814-1891 l, Geoi ■•■ Gale, Phineas M. Johnson, Levi Lee. Zenas
Ogden: in 1842, Booth B. Davis and James O. Eaton: in 1843 Adelaide C
Beardslev. Dexter Dewing and son Geprge, Sanford and William ( ). Garfield,
William E Gregory, Charles N. Meigs Capt. George and Dr. George II.
Young, were among the arrivals. Some of these men owned land in adjoining
towns. Others of the earlier villagers were Philo Baird, Curtis Bellows, Lewis
S. Bemis. Reuben R. Brown, Alexander S. Brown, Zophar Chittenden,
Russell Crandall, lohn Cromlev, Anthonv Delap, Eli K. Frost, John Gillespie,

288 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Peter Colder, Xoah Harriman, David Hartson, Horace N. Hay, Dr. Samuel
W. Henderson, Edwin Hodges, George Humphrey, Samuel Mallory, John
Matheson, Job O. Matteson, Orrin Maxham, Lot Mayo and sons Andrew
and Samuel, Urban D. Meacham, Alonzo Piatt, Davis Reed, Wyman Spooner,
William L. Stowe, Levi Thomas, Samuel and James L. Tubbs, Dr. Eleazar
and Francis A. Utter, Lucius Wilmot, Edward Winne.

Lewis Shepard Bemis (1819-1890), sun of Allen Bemis and Edna
Shepard. came from Niagara county. Xew York, with wife Olivia ( 1825-
1904). daughter of Dexter Dewing. About 1850 he became landlord of the
Exchange Hotel, and after 1857 went into like business at Milwaukee.

Reuben R. Brown was for some years master of the Masonic lodge and
was an instructor in the work of the lodge.

Zophar Chittenden (1823-1894) came from Ohio, a carpenter and joiner,
and built several of the better houses of the time, in the village and for
prosperous farmers. He left after 1857 and died at Kalamazoo.

John Cromley ( 1 822-1899) was a master shoemaker. He made the
overland trip to California and return, and his general usefulness and com-
radelike quality shown in the expedition and at the mines were gratefully
appreciated by his companions. At home, too, he was one of the truest and
kindest of men.

Anthony Delap ( [813-1896) was a blacksmith, with other capabilities.
He built a good house, which be sold to Levi Thomas and then passed over
to East Delavan neighborhood.

James O. Eaton married January 1, [843, Mary Miranda Dwinnell, a
sister of the pioneer-preacher-chronicler of Lafayette. He opened one of the
earliest general stores in the village.

Sanford Garfield ( [793-1872), son of Solomon, Jr.. was a cousin of
President Garfield's father, lie married Clarissa Oakley (1795-1883). He
was a shoemaker, and came here from Otsego by way of Chautauqua county.

William Oakley Garfield 1 [819-1888) was born in Vermont; learned
his lather's calling — shoe-making and came with him in 1842. [lis wife,
Fidelia ( 1822-11)10 ). was a daughter of Dexter Dewing.

William E. Gregory came with more than average means, bought a
farm in the Lafayette quarter, and died soon afterward. His son, William
Eliot Gregory, about [857 went to Galveston, where he was for several
years a successful business man. with some railway interests. Mis occasional
return was welcomed by old friends. I Ms younger son, \s.qih. remained here
till his death, about [875.

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN. j8<")

Xoah Harriman (1805-1903), born in Vermont, bought a farm nearb)
in Lafavette, and preached as a licensed exhorter. His wife was Lucinda
Davis (1797- 1 891).

Horace Noble Hay was for a few years Otis Preston's partner in retail
business. Air. Preston mentioned him as one who gave much attention to
his dress and personal appearance. He owned a farm in Lafayette. In
1852 he started for California, and died of yellow fever, at sea, on his way
out. His wife was Margaret Fuller.

Dr. Samuel Wirt Henderson (1817-1857). son of Dr. John M. Hender-
son's first wife. Rebecca, daughter of Samuel Wirt, was born at Willoughby,
Ohio. He married Rebecca, daughter of Nathan Hicks. He was accounted
a skillful physician and surgeon A jump from a wagon to hard ground
resulted in inflammation of the bowels and in death after a week of pain. He
understood his case from the first.

John Matheson (1820-1895), son of John and Jessie, was born in one
of the joint counties of Ross and Cromarty, Scotland ; apprenticed to a tailor
at Inverness; came to Lafayette in 1840; opened a shop and store at Elkhorn;
married Loretta (1827-1903), daughter of Rev. Luther Lee.

William Lyman Stow e I 1821-1891 ) was born at Stowe. northeastern
Ohio. He married Lavina. daughter of Philip and Mary Mink, of Walworth,
in 1851. He was a cabinet-maker and house-joiner.

Samuel Tubbs (died in 1861) and wife. Polly Frost (1785- 1875), were
natives of Connecticut who settled at Augusta, New York, and lived a short
time at Chagrin Falls, Ohio. A son. Isaac P., died at Elkhorn in 1859, aged
fifty. A daughter. Martha, wife of Nicholas George Bowers, and two
daughters were successively wives of Lot Mayo. Mrs. Tubbs was nearl)
related to Alvah J. and Eli K. Frost.

Edward Winne ( [815-1886) was son of a rich man of Albany, and
was at once a business man (in lumber and grain) at Elkhorn and a farmer
of section 4. Geneva. The hard times of 1X57 sent him to northeastern Iowa.
He died at Bozeman, Montana. ' His wife, Lydia Maria Chapman, was
married November 6, 1844; died at Waverly, Iowa, in [892. Mr. Winne's
father left to him his hooks, and for many years these constituted the large 1
private library at Elkhorn.

Having chosen his villagi te settled on it. and named it from Colonel
Phoenix's trail-mark, and a vote of the county in [838 (confirmed by leg
lative act) having made it the county-seat. Mr. Rockwell's next great care
was to lav out a few streets ahout the park and set < >ff tin I blocks

(19)

2QO WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

into home lots. As at first platted the village was wholly on the county's
quarter-section. Edward Xorris, the county surveyor, laid out the streets,
blocks and lots, and Mr. Rockwell was appointed county agent for sale of
lots. There were five parallel streets, running northward and southward.
Beginning with East street, on the section line, the others are Washington,
Wisconsin, Broad and Church. Beginning near the intersecting section line,
the streets running from east to west are named Park (then called South),
Walworth, Court, Jefferson, and North. Court, Wisconsin, Walworth, and
Church streets bound the park, which overlies or cuts in twain Broad street.
All these and the newer streets are four rods wide, except Walworth and
Broad, which are six rods wide. These two streets were designed for business
uses, but a hotel built at Wisconsin and Walworth streets diverted business
from Broad street. No alleys were considered in the original plat nor in the
several additions.

Rockwell's first addition enlarged the village by a narrow tier of blocks
eastward, and by a row of blocks southward, to Rockwell street. After 1854,
when coming railways filled men's minds by day with hopes and their dreams
by night with visions of cities rising like exhalations, bringing wealth in
front-foot values to each lucky lot owner, Colonel Elderkin laid out his addi-
tion southeastwardly and gave Jackson, Wright and Frank streets to the vil-
lage map. Arm ild's addition, eastward, was laid out by the heirs of Giles
Thompson Arnold of Victor, New York, who had bought a quarter section and
had soon afterward died. Levi Lee's addition and the smaller Edwin Hodges
addition, westward, lay within the area of village growth. Booth B. Davis'
addition, northward, gave a few more streets and avenues, and grew some-
what more slowly into valuable lots. The rather premature Squire Stanford
and Heman II. Harrison additions lie northwestward and are but thinly
settled, and much like' them, except as to Walworth street, is the farther
westward Devendorf, Mallory and Spencer addition. Dr. Devendorf was of
Delavan. Samuel Mallory was a substantial and reputable citizen, but not a
real-estate "boomer." David I'. Spencer became too well known to bankers
and depositors in three states, lie was at Elkhorn less than two years.
Finally, there were the abortive Centralia and Byzantium additions, the first
far to eastward, the other across the railway, southward. Both were the
unsubstantial creations id" Otis Preston's restless mind

A village straggling into four sections, in as mam towns, soon found
it inconvenient to divide its little squad of voters among four polling-places
on election days and its yearly accounts with the county government equally
troublesome at the record offices. A legislative act of February 27, 1S40.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 291

relieved this situation by creating a new town from section 1 of Delavan,
section 6 of Geneva, section 31 of Lafayette, and section 36 of Elkhorn.
As the new town received the name of its village, the older Elkhorn became
Sugar Creek. In 1856 the village was chartered and its limits made co-
extensive with those of the town, the whole constituting also one school
district. In 1897 a general law made Elkhorn a city of the fourth class,
its population being then above fifteen hundred and below ten thousand.
With tin- last change disappeared the time-honored April town meeting,
which regulated the corporate revenue and outlay by viva voce vote of electors
present at the hour appointed; and with it went the Jul}- school meeting,
which in similar purely democratic way disposed yearly of the affairs of the
village considered as a school district. The change of four villages of tins
county to cities has brought more power to the local administrations, broader
and more efficient systems of public improvements, and, of course, greater
cost to taxpayers.

The city of Elkhorn lies above sea-level, at the railway station 996 feet,
at the court-house 1,031 feet, at points in the farthest northwest quarter
1,038 feet. It was for long supposed and said that it is on the highest
ground in the county, which is nearly true, but not so nearly as to warrant
the slight misstatement. Sharon and Walworth villages are nearly as high
and the Yerkes Observatory is on ground higher by twelve feet. The
point in the short high ridge of section 19, Geneva, is about one hundred feet
higher than any part of Elkhorn. The rise from the station northward to
Park street is of nearly uniform slope. The greater part of the city is built
on practically level ground. The surface of the town was mostly of black-
prairie mould, a spade-thrust deep, which gave rise to a harmless sarcasm;
in effect, that sixteen fine cornfields weie spoiled to make a needless city.
The gravel next below is so mixed and underlaid with clay as to make the
natural surface drainage worse than that of any city or village of the county,
excepting Walworth. But it has become practicable, after many years. In
secure dry cellars for new buildings. Good sewers are possible whenever
the citizens are able and willing to bear their cost, as there is a lair descent
southward to Jackson's creek. A once considerable pond or marsh in the
northeastern quarter has so far shrunk as to leave but twenty-five acres,
at the northern line, slightly under water.

CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.

Religion and secular education came hand in hand. A Methodist society
was formed about 1841, and before the end of that year the Episcopal society

_■(,_• WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

began its long pioneer period. The Congregationalists organized in 1843,
the Baptists in 1852, the Catholics in E&48, the Evangelican Lutherans in
1870, the Universalists built a church in 1874. the Lutherans of the Ohio
synod separated in 1898 and built a church. In 1856 the Methodists built
a large church of brick, which was burned in [859. They rebuilt of wood,
afterward encased with brick, and have continued to improve their home
within and without, and they first bought and then built a parsonage. St.
John's, Episcopal, was built about 1855, of wood, extended in 1858, re-built
of brick during the rectorship of Mr. Pullen — having first built a rectory.
Extensions and improvements succeeded, and an organ, altar, baptismal font,
and stained windows have given the church some distinction in appearance.
In 1858 the Congregational am! Wesleyans jointly built a church, which in
1882 gave way to a suitable brick building, creditable to the liberality and
good taste of its owners. (The Wesleyans long ago retired from the part-
nership, and have been absorbed by other societies). A parsonage was soon
added to the Congregational property. Like their Methodist, Episcopal, and
Baptist brethren, they own a dining-hall on the fair ground. The Baptist
church, built in 1853 of wood, roomy and comfortable, was pulled away in
1885 and a brick church took its place. This was largely rebuilt in 1897 and
made a thin,? of beauty. In Kn'7 it was so far injured by tire that it was
built anew, and new seems likely to meet all needs for a generation to come.
The Catholics had for several year- held fortnightly service in a mission
chapel. In [880 they built St. Patrick's church of brick on a fine lot
prudently acquired at a favorable opportunity some years previously, and

upied it until too;, when it was pulled down and built anew with en-
largement and improvement \ good house for the priest was built soon
after the firsl building was finished. There is much in the story of this
ciety's early struggles and of the things it has accomplished without noise
to move tin- mind to sympath) and admiration. The older Lutheran church
was built, of wood, in 1 88 | on the site of a house built for a select school.
It odern village style, and i- both sightly and comfortable. In the

pastorate of Rev. Carl II. \.uerswald, 18.18, the membi divided and the

eders buill a brick church in the same block. The Univ. rsalisl society
■ inactive ome years. Christian Scientists use part

of the otherwise empty church.

The present church buildings are becoming to a not wealthy little city,

1 the societies arc mostly full of the vitality which supports Christian

ation and it- appropriate work. The several slow, painful steps in

the earlier >\\ mosl , 1 church societies are

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN. _'<j.i

naturally and rightly memorable to the surviving toilers, and incidents of
these patient struggles are yet told. Such trials of body and spirit are part
of the common experience of newly planted and for long but slowly-increas-
ing communities and institutions. Each congregation still knows and feels
the disproportion of its means to its great aims ; but Episcopal rectors no
longer swim swollen streams and labor through not less formidable mud
to meet communicants in a pioneer's little dwelling, nor do gray-haired
Catholic priests plow or plunge through otherwise unbroken road from
Delavan to Elkhorn to hold fortnightly service in a chapel little more sightly
or comfortable than a barn.

The story of schools has points of resemblance to that of churches;
but the great difference is that churches are built and maintained by the
voluntary sacrifices of the few, while the schools quickly become the care of
the body politic and are upheld by taxation which exempts no man for his
unwillingness. The rise of neither institution is by sudden flight. Each
moves always forward, through difficulty and delaying circumstances, by
uneven steps, toward its always far-ahead object. Private schools at Elk-
horn, taught by Lydia Carr, Mary S. Brewster, Adelaide B. Beardsley,
Colonel Elderkin, and others whose names are lost to local memory, were
followed in 1840 by a public school. Its house was built on a lot reserved
for its purpose from the county's quarter section. It was twenty feet square,
and afterward remembered as the "old oak school-house." In 1850 a larger
house was built on the same lot, of native brick, two-storied, without outer
ornament, substantial, homely, and comfortable. This house was not
neglected by prudent school boards, for it was occasionally painted as to
its wood-work and its rooms, vestibule and stairway, whitewashed yearly
as to ceilings and walls. Its construction admitted such extensions and
alterations as to make it a neat old-fashioned dwelling for Doctor Reynolds,
and after him Belden Weed. Ex-Sheriff Derthick now lives where soldiers,
civil officers, business and professional men, and other merely useful and
excellent citizens, many of whom are yet living between Michigan shore and
Pacific coast, learned the three R's and something besides, and laid broad
bases for their maturer lives.

A new school house was built in 1X57, in Arnold's addition, fronting
Jackson street, and at the head of Walworth street. It was adapted to the
needs of four grades. Its ample ground has now a fine growth of shade
trees. A two-storied addition was built in 1882 and burned with the whole
structure in 1886. For a year the departments divided themselves among
nearly a dozen temporary refuges. The new building with furnishing cost

294

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

twenty-five thousand dollars. Increase in the number of pupils and depart-
ments, arising from the admission of pupils from other towns, made another
building needful. This was supplied, at a cost of thirty-five thousand dollars,
in 1906, by a separate house for the sole use of the high school, built a few
feet from the older house. Both are steam-heated and electric-lighted. The
total value of ground, buildings, and equipment is about seventy-five thousand
dollars. Nominally a high school for some years, a resolution of the school
meeting of July. 1876, made this institution really so by directing a slight re-
arrangement of study-courses and other compliances with the rules of the
state superintendent's office, where the subsequent work of the school has
been acceptable.

A full list of teachers cannot now be shown, for such record as was
made was cared for but shabbily by often-changing clerks. It is learned from
records and somewhat uncertain memory that there were Levi Jackson, Mary
S. Brewster, and Lydia Carr in 1841 ; Emeline McCracken in 1842; Adelaide
C. Beardsley 1844; Eli K. Frost and Helen Mar Cowdery 1849; Alvah J.
Frost 1850; William P. Frost about that year. Miss Brewster became Mrs.
Edward Pentland, Miss McCracken was married to Edwin Wallis Meacham,
ami Miss Cowdery to Darius Ionian.

After these the record is rather less broken: James 15. Tower.* Benja-
min C. Rogers* and wife, and Selinda J. Gardner in 1851: William C.
Dustin,* Mrs. Flora M. l'ratt. Harriet Leonard in 1852; M. W. Carroll.*
Pamela A. Darling, Mary Louisa and Sarah F. Patton in 1853; Matthew
Waldenmeyer,* Julia Stevens, Mi-ses Morrill and Swain in 1854; J. C.
Plumb,* Stephen Sibley,* Henry D. L. Webster,* Sarah J. Allen. Ellen
I'.canlsley in 1855; George M. Dewey,* Robert M. McKee,* J. J. M. Angier,*
feanette Henderson, Mr-. Laura Young Plumb, Mr-. Jane E. Utlcy in
1856; '). Sherman Cook,* Emily IX Carpenter, Harriet Marion Perkins,
Nellie Young in [857; Orlando M. Laker. Helen Chamberlin, Susan M.

Golder, Eliza G Irich, Melvina Vienna Hawk- in [858; Everett Chamber-

lin.* Minnie Hubbard, Sarah Ponsford, A. I. Wheeler in [859; Zeruiah
Adkins, Elvira Chapman. Aristine Curtis, Philena Tuttle, Flavius Josephus
Harrington in [860; Emerson Peet* in [861 ; \. M. Case,* T. X. Wells.*
Helen E Selden in 1862; Charles W. Cutler.1 Lydia Malvina Aldrich, M.
C. Bennett, Mary Holley in [863. Asterisks 'lenote principals. Some of
these teacher- were more than once employed. Mr. Plumb stayed long
enough to marrj Laura Young, who remained after lie left the school. Mr.
Sibley was a son of John Sibley, of Bloomfield. Mr. McKee married Mrs.
fjtle) Miss Henderson became Mr-. Chipman V Holley; Miss Perkins,

WALWORTH COUNTYj WISCONSIN. _'<)5

Mrs. Frank Leland; Miss Hawks, Mrs. Horace L. Arnold; Miss Aldrich,
Mrs. Dyar L. Cowdery; Miss Allen, Mrs. Alanson H. Barnes. Messrs.
Chamberlin, Cutler and Harrington were soldiers of the Civil war.

Loss of record prevents further enumeration of subordinate teachers,
but the succession of principals from 1864 to 1912 is fully known: Mr.
Cutler in 1864, William Elden 1865, Augustus J. Cheney 1866. In Sep-
tember, 1867. the school was reorganized with four grades and began its
work with Mr. Cutler at its head, Charles N. Bell 1869 (his term com-
pleted by Orvie G. Taylor), W. A. Delamater 1871. Edward H. Sprague
1873. David H. Flett 1877, Adelbert I. Sherman 1879, Howard L. Smith
1881. F. G. Young 1883, Dexter D. Mayne 1884. Robert Fayette Skiff 1889,
John T. Edwards 1890, Charles D. Kipp 1894, Thomas J. Jones 1900, John
Dixon 1907 to 1912. Messrs. Bell, Flett, H. L. Smith, and Sprague became
lawyers. Mr. Baker has for many years been treasurer of the Merriam
Company, publishers of "Webster's Dictionary." At the opening of the
public library he gave to it a copy of that work. Messrs. Mayne, Edwards,
and Jones were called to higher or wider usefulness in their profession.

In 1856 Edwin. Hodges built at Park and Church streets for the use
of a select school. The teacher list was not long, and Lorenzo Dow Hand,
Harriet M. Perkins. Everett Chamberlin, J. F. Mack, and Anna Friend are
most easily remembered. In 1858 Robert M. McKee opened a school for
one year, in Preston's Centralia block.

BUSINESS INTERESTS.

Business at Elkhorn began in 1838 at Mr. Rockwell's store, and by 1842
Booth B. Davis and James O. Eaton came, each to add to increasing trade
the enlivening element of competition. John Matheson came about that time
from Inverness, and advertised himself as a fashionable tailor. By [850
his brother, Finley Matheson. advertised a stock of hats and caps and also
first-rate port wine and brandy for medicine only. He had but lately come
from Demerara and therefore knew how to buy medicinal liquors and wines.
Reuben Harriman was making and dealing in boots and shoes. Walling &
Son advertised harness-maker's goods and carriage trimmer's works. Ed
ward Elderkin, George Gale. Urban D. Meacham, and VVyman Spooner
were resident lawyers. Samuel \V. Henderson and George II. Young were
the home physicians. Levi Lee had Elkhorn brick in any quantity and of
excellent quality for sale. At the end of bis term as sheriff, in 185 1, Otis
Preston went into general retail business with Horace X. Hay as partner,

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

and later with Benjamin F. Pope. He remained in a steadily decreasing
business until his death, in 1890, and hoped to the end for himself and

Elkhorn.

There were other men in business before the dawn of the railway period,
but changes were frequent then as later and dates are uncertain. Among
these were George Bulkley and Edwin Hodges, each of whom had various
speculative enterprises in hand. Mr. Hodges was generally prudent and
Mr. Bulkley was sometimes less prudent. The business career of each closed .
in total failure.

BANKS AND BANKERS.

From earliest years there were money-lenders and petty brokers. The
demand for money was pressing and constant. Two to three per cent
monthly was readily obtained, even when the security offered was the best
that the time and place admitted. The products of Wisconsin as yet brought
insufficient money from eastern cities, and a currency that would pass within
the state was thought much better than none. The statute permitted the
creation of banks of issue, and the notes of these local conveniences were
based upon rather than secured by deposit of depreciated bonds of other
states, as Tennessee, Missouri, and California. A few of these banks, no
doubt, were of the "wild-cat" variety from their beginning. Most of them
became so, in effect, when such test as that of 1857 was applied.

An advertisement in the Elkhorn Independent, in 1855, called for some
man having knowledge and experience as a hanker to come and help. David
I). Spencer, of Ilion, Xew York, heard and answered the Macedonian cry.
and in the next year the Bank of Elkhorn, with capital of twenty-five thou-
sand dollars, was organized with Mr. Rockwell as president and the wise
man from the East as cashier. One of the pleasantest, mosl winning fellows
was Spencer; but a year of his partnership was enough for Mr. Rockwell.
who was one of the sanesl and safest of business men. He retired and with
his brothers and brother-in-law formed a private banking house. Dr. Jesse
1 \lilU followed him in the presidenc} of Spencer's bank. The Doctor was
one of the best of men, bu1 singularly simple-minded in business affairs of
more weight than those of a village retailer. This he had shown as a state
. and showed again, after several years, in an autobiographical sketch
asked of him for inclusion with Mr. Dwinnell's projected county history.
Such a man would be a bank presidenl very much to Mr. Spencer's mind.
Within little more than a month from ibis change, and while the monetary
panic of thai year was yet but a da\ or two old, the bank was closed — by

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN _'0~

Spencer's neglect to unlock the front door — without the demand at its counter
of a dollar by depositor or note-holder. Within a day or two more, at the
demand of directors and stockholders, the cashier unlocked the door and,
opening the old-fashioned Herrick safe, he pulled a drawer and showed
thirty-one big copper cents and coolly told his employers that there was the
entire coin asset of their bank. His last act as cashier had been to receive
as a special deposit, from a widow of Spring Prairie, six hundred dollars
in gold. He made such restitution as his small interest in local real-estate
enabled, and was permitted to go forth to gain further experience in Georgia,
in Grundy county. Tllinois, and at Chicago, and then lived a few wears, self-
exiled to Europe, as a philosophical observer of fiscal systems abroad.

Doctor Mills was followed in the presidency by John Alexander Pierce
in 1858 and J. Lyman Edwards in 1861, and George Bulkley became cashier.
Early in 1865 Messrs. Edwards and Bulkley, with William H. Conger, Amos
Fellows. Osborn Hand and Robert T. Seymour, constituted the directorate
of the First National Bank of Elkhorn, into which concern the old bank
was merged with some changes in ownership. Tn the fall of 1869 it was
found that in the cashier's private speculation he had made the bank liable
for his loss: for he had used its credit in a manner forbidden by federal
law and by the customs of scrupulous and careful bankers. Mr. Bulkley,
whose business ability had been estimated rather extravagantlv, may have
Urn judged even more harshly than he deserved. It might seem that he
was much the great loser, for he lost his own money and other property.
his friends, and his family. For nearly a quarter-century he had been an
appreciable force in local business and in town affairs. He faced the
situation squarely until all possible adjustments had been made, and then
went to Kansas; but it was too late to begin at bottom and build himself
anew. One true friend, his sister Amanda, remained to his end. She had
small means for her own support, but was resourceful and resolute, and she
placed her abilities at the service of the family which had cast him off, and
then went for a time to Kansas to make a home for him and to give such
aid and comfort as a capable and faithful woman might.

Mr. Conger became cashier until his death in 1895, when he was
followed by Fred W. Isham. The latter's resignation in 191 1 served to
promote Henry D. L. Adkins. who began as a boy, under his grandfather's
wise instruction, to serve a long apprenticehood in the business of banking.
Mr. Conger was son of a prosperous farmer of Dutchess county, and was
well bred to farm work though he did not permanently harden his hands.
His education was but rudimentary and neither that nor his habit of life

j,,}< WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

had fitted him for the daily routine of banker's business. He was twice
imposed upon by clumsy forgeries, both of which were detected and punished.
But in 1869 he was a man for an emergency. Men knew him as a man of
undoubted integrity, having a high sense of personal and commercial honor,
a man of courage to face disaster, a fair judge of real-estate values and
having a wide personal acquaintance within the circle of his business; and
he had a large interest in the bank. He was just-minded in most matters,
public-spirited, of equable temper, and an excellent neighbor. Besides, he
wisely leaned on Henry Adkins, who served long and well as bookkeeper
and teller, as to the conduct of the bank's business. He found the bank
marly moribund and left it sound and full of promise of great length of
years. Its deposits now amount to six hundred thousand dollars.

In 1885 William J. Bray and Edmund J. Hooper came from Palmyra,
bought and fitted a building, and opened a banking house, under the state
laws The next year they admitted to their partnership Winsor S. Dunbar,
John G. Flack, Asa Foster, George Hutton, Robert J. and Thomas E. Lean,
John Oslock. and Frederick Winters, and formally organized as the State
Bank of Elkhorn, its capital twenty-five thousand dollars. In 1899 Thomas
J. Sleep became president. In 1909 Mr. Hooper, who from the first had
been cashier, retired from the bank and Miss Amanda Winters, assistant
cashier, served in his stead. In 1910 Mr. Hooper came again into the bank
as president with Laurel W. Swan as cashier. There are now twenty-seven
stockholders. The deposits amount to nearly four hundred thousand dollars.

BRICK AND TILE MAKING.

Local brick-yards were everywhere wanted, though their product might
be narrowly limited as to quantity and far behind the once famous Mil-
waukeean article in color and quality. The roads were laid out rather than
made, and for half n\ the year nearly impassible for heav) carriage. There
were indications of brick-clay in the western side of the village, much of
which material was on Levi Lee's domain. 11 is numerous enterprises called
for something brick-shaped, and he therefore opened a pit along the line of
Jefferson street. Some men have said that his clay was of fair quality for
its purpose, but as to this there has been -cme doubting, for the product of
raried from rather hard to the softness of crayon. Men whose
reverence for Mr. Lee could nol be called idolatrj were used to say that
at each firing he would count and la) oul a fixed number of rails or sticks
Oi 1 iod, and when these were burned the bricks were baked. lie sold

all he buriied or dried, and his brick- helped to build the village.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 2<)<)

When railway prospects hastened the village growth, and men began
to add each morning another dollar to yesterday's front-foot price of their
real estate, it was found that more bricks were needed. Nathan Sexton, who
had come to a farm west of the village, found it worth while to lease a
bit of Albert Ogden's land along Walworth street, two long blocks south-
ward from Lee's works. The clay was of better quality, and Mr. Sexton
knew how to make brick. Baird & Ogden (the latter a brother of the
pioneer) worked this yard for a year or two each side of 1856. Mr. Sexton
resumed the work with George Burpee as a partner. The latter continued
this industry until his death in 1876, after which followed a period of
inaction.

Edward H. Sprague took the old yard in hand in 1886, and calling his
brother, George B. Sprague, from Lancaster, they began a systematic pro-
duction of bricks and drain tiles by providing coal-burning furnaces, engine,
pug-mills, engine-house, and sheds, and with all these went and still goes
Mr. Sprague's personal supervision. Of late the demand for home-made
bricks has become visibly less than formerly, but that for drain-tiles is likely
to be for some years actiye.

Edwin Daniels owned or had invented a quick process of leather-making
by the use of terra japonica. In 1S57 William Walker, a harness-maker,
built a tannery, with six vats, in East street, between Court and Walworth.
The Walker & Daniels leather (mostly sole-leather) found for a season a fair
home market. Men who wore it found that whenever it was wet through
it stained through stockings and gave their feet a beautiful deep Mongolian
complexion. The tannery had not come to stay, and in a few more years
the building was moved around the next southward corner to serve tem-
porarily as a chapel. Its latest use to mankind was as a shop where William
Allen Barnes wrought with brain and hand on his models for improved corn-
harvesters and propellers for ocean-navigation ; and then it was burned in
1902.

George Watson, in 1852, built the brick shop at Court and Washington
streets and made wagons and buggies. About 1855 he gave place to Josiah
W. Gaylord and Isaac Stoner, respectively wheelwright and blacksmith and
both good workmen. The all-ruining and far-dispersing panic period dis-
solved the firm and reduced Edward McDonald, its successor, and the shop
to repair work, chiefly, until 1870. Nelson Hanson then resumed wagon-
making with Frederick Opitz at first as his blacksmith and then as his
partner. This firm, too, passed away and a blacksmithy remains. Nearly
contemporary with the brick shop was the white shop at Walworth and

300 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Washington streets, built by Edward Winne, who worked at nothing but
attempted .several other enterprises, none of which returned his investment.
He employed wrights, smiths, painters, and trimmers until the business had
lived out its short lite. In 1857 Bernard Malachi Madden and William Van
Gasbeck, woodworkers, George Clary and Henry J. Shaver, smiths, and
Dexter Witter, trimmer and painter, formed the Elkhorn Carriage Company.
They were good workmen. Madden one of the best in the state, and they
deserved the success which their time denied them.

In 1851 Joel A. Daniels and Moses Hemenway, both of Winnebago
county, Illinois, bought about an acre of Colonel Elderkin's land, nearly
opposite the fair-ground and on the margin of the broad, shallow pond —
now dry enough for corn fields. They built and equipped a steam grist-mill.
but their capital was small and their flour not of highest quality. The
property changed ownership more than once, and the mill was most of the
time idle, until i860, when Mr. Hodges leased and refitted it. George W.
Ellis came as miller and in no long time as temporary owner. His was the
last attempt to make Hour by steam power.

I). Mansfield Stearns built and equipped a wind-mill, near the northern
end of Wisconsin street in 1870. The breezes were found too unsteady and
lawless for profitable use as mill power. After him came Nathaniel Pitkin,
"a gentleman, sir. and a scholar, sir; you see, sir." He ground feed for
two or three years, after which Charles Beetow had a term at the hopper.
Then the wheel was blown away and the building was left to the tooth of
time.

About t866 Osmer C. Chase, Nathaniel Carswell, and Clarence E.
Remer refitted the steam mill building for cheese-making. The business was
continued by Carswell & Wiswell, and in i88j b) George X. Wiswell. Late
in [883 the building was burned, leaving only its stone foundation and its
stout brick walls. On these Waller A. West began in January, 18S4. to re-
establish a slowly, steadily growing enterprise. In March he was ready for
business, and with John H. Harris the firm of Harris & West began a
prosperous career. In [900 Miner >\ Thompson took the old works, and
Harris & West in [904 began their works near the railway station, and these
have since been greatlj extended. The building was designed and equipped
Eor latest and best methods of making Elgin butter ami plain and fancy
cheeses. Their little eh- have reached the Mohawk valley, and other

11 are not barred againsl them. The latest extension, for condensing
milk, is nearly ready for its work. This factory is one of nine now owned
by John II and George I'.. Harris, George D. Puffer (of Waukesha), and

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 3OI

Walter A. West, incorporated as the Wisconsin Butter and Cheese Company.
The estimated value of the works at Elkhorn is one hundred thousand dollars

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.

About two dozen persons, of fourteen families, met in December, 1852,
at the court house and organized a Baptist society, choosing Rev. Thomas
Bright as pastor. He lived on his farm, about a mile from the park, within
the town of Geneva, a circumstance which often enabled him to be useful
in emergencies, long after his pastorate ended. George W. Gates came in
1856, Thomas Brande 1858, John H. Dudley, Joseph E. Johnson 1866, Levi
Parmly, Francis M. lams 1869, Arthur L. Wilkinson 1870, Ferdinand D.
Stone 1873, George A. Creissey 1874, Sylvester E. Sweet 1879, Henry A.
Buzzell 1885, J. Russell Baldwin 1892, Charles Carey Willett 1896, Henry
Clay Miller 1901, Warren Hastings McLeod 1903, J. Hector Miller 1906,
Charles A. Hemenway 1908.

For several years the Catholics of Elkhorn and its vicinity seemed a
nearly negligible element of local religious life, but good grain was sown
early and in 1848 Rev. Francis Prendergast came from the mission at
Delavan to hold services at Michael Fahey's. Services were held occasionally
at the court-house. The parish was poor but steadfast, and the general
increase of population from 1854 to 1857 brought gain in numbers to this
as to the other churches. About 1861 a lot was bought at Walworth and
East streets, and a disused tannery building was moved from a half-block
away and fitted decently for temporary use. Thereafter until Rev. John
William Yahev came in 1878 as a resident priest, the clergy of St. Andrew's
came fortnightly from Delavan to minister at the altar of St. Patrick's.
Another and in most ways more desirahle lot had been bought, at Walworth
and Church streets, on . which two large churches have successively been
built, the first one having been used twenty years. In 1886 Rev. Michael
Luby came for one year's service, and in 1887 Rev. James Nicholas closed
for the present the list of resident priests of St. Patrick's.

Rev. Amnon Gaston, then of Delavan, organized the Congregational
society at Capt. George Young's hotel, in 1843. ami gave it part of his
time as pastor. David Pinkerton came in T844. Samuel E. Miner 1847,
Jedidiah D. Stevens 1852, Lyman Huggins Johnson 1857. John Babson Linn
Soule i860, Stephen .D. Peet 1865, Calvin Carlton Adams 1 [813-1906) in
1867, Alba Levi Parsons Loomis i8f>8, Peter S. Yan Nest (1813-1893) in
1872. Joel Gleason Sabin (1821-1897) in 1874. Ilanford Fowle 1878,

y)2 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Newton Barrett 1881, Samuel Fay Stratton 11X37-1883) in 1883. George
Francis Hunter (1855-1891) in 1884, Charles H. Fraser 1886, David R
Anderson 1890, George Cavanah Lochridge ( 1845-1903) in 1893, Frederick
M. Hubbell 1900, Jesse F. Taintor 1904, Almon O. Stevens 1905.

To found the Episcopal parish of St. John in the Wilderness was in
1841 the work of Revs. James Lloyd Breck, William Adams, a son-in-law
of the bishop, and John Henry Hobart. all named often by the older mem-
bers, though the last named is nowhere found in parish or public record. He
was a son of the bishop of his name, and it is known that he was in 1865
rector of Grace church. Baltimore. Tt is likely that he was of Bishop
Kemper's staff of serviceable young mission workers, sent where and when
occasion needed. For many years rectors at Delavan supplied Elkhorn's
frequent need. The succession of rectors as shown by parish books was
John McNamara in 1848 and again in 1858. William S. Ludlum 1851. Gerrit
E. Peters 1X53. Henry M. Thompson 1856, Joseph H. Nichols 18 — . Joseph
C. Passmore 1861, ('. T. Seibt, Alexander F. W. Falk, Charles N. Spalding,
George W. Dean 1 these five last named were professors at Racine College,
holding Sunday service between 1861 and 1S71), George W. Harrod 1872,
Edward Huntington Rudd [873, Charles Melvin Pullen [875, Henry Hughes
[881, Charles Holmes (from Delavan) 1882, Luke Paul Holmes 1888,
William B. Thorn [892, Edward A. Bazett- Jones, 1894, Charles N. Spald-
ing [896, John Welling Areson 1898, Philip Henry Linley 1901, Arthur J.
Wescott [904, Elijah Hedding Edson [906, Alan Grant Wilson 1910, Free-
man Philip O. Reed 101 c. Hates indicate beginning of each rectorship. ^.s
in the other churches, the pastor was not always followed immediately by his
successor.

An Evangelical Lutheran society was formed in 1870 with Rev. Heinrich
P. Duborg as nonresident pastor. Rev. Johannes |. Meier, who came about
[875, brought his family in 1870, and was succeedad by Wilhelm Buehring
in [879, Johannes Dejung 1882, Timotheus J. Saner. 1886, Carl H. Auerswald
[893, Christian Gevers 1898 to the present time. Before the end of Mr.
Auerswald's pastorate a division of the society occurred, and a new church
was built in 1898. Its resident pastors have been Hugo Stubenvoll 1898,
Karl ( ). Salzmann [901, Heinrich Cull 1902. Carl Hammer 1905. Since
1007 the church service lias been supplied by Herman Lindemann and
August Kohlhoff, of Burlington.

In [852 the Methodist Episcopal society began its roll of resident clergy
with the name of Joseph C, 1 'ana. .after whom John Tibbals 1853. D. B.
Vnderson [854, Levi Lee [855, Russell P. I.aw'ton 1856, Stephen Smith

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 3O3

1858, Thomas White 1859, Horace B. Crandall i860, John G. Pingree 1862,
Andrew J. Mead 1864, Joseph T. Woodhead 1866, David Deal 1868,
William R. Jones 1870, Samuel Lugg 1872, John L. Hewitt 1873, John D.
Cole 1874. Wesley Lattin 1875, Thomas T. Howard 1876, Samuel C.
Thomas 1877, Norvall Joseph Aplin 1879, Hiram G. Sedgwick 1881, John
Schneider 1883, Payson W. Peterson 1885, John V. Trenery 1887, William H.
Summers 1889, John W. Olmstead 1891, Elvanlo C. Potter 1893, William
Wesley Woodside 1890, Mark A. Drew 1898, Sidney A. Sheard 1900, J.
Thomas Murrish 1902, Jason L. Sizer 1907, Thomas Austin 191 1.

Of clergymen remembered as church-builders were Messrs. Barrett,
Barry, Bright, Buzzell, Dejung, Luke P. Holmes. Johnson, Lee, Nicholas,
Peters, Pullen, Vahey, Willet. Mr. Johnson had been bred to the use of
hawk and trowel and he plastered every yard of the ceilings and walls of
the church built in [858, having Bro. Osborn Hand to carry mortar. A
few years later he left the state, the pulpit, and his young family. Messrs.
Pullen and L. P. Holmes worked on church and rectory with hands well
hardened to the use of saw, plane, hammer, and the ruder tools of labor.
Fathers Vahey and Nicholas were practical architects, and Mr. Willett de-
vised and supervised the extensive alterations of his church. Mr. Lee made
the brick for the church of 1856. Mr. Dejung was also a bee-keeper, and
often sat with book and pipe among his swarms. Mr. Barry had been state
superintendent of schools and also chaplain of the Fourth Wisconsin In-
fantry. While in military service he said or wrote that he had been preaching
universal salvation for many years, but was at last convinced that hell was
just then a military necessity. Messrs. David R. Anderson, Crandall,
Cressey. Lochridge, Stratton, Sweet, and Vahey also served in the Civil war.
Mr. Sedgwick was an amateur telescope-maker, and owned a portable ob-
servatory, from which might be seen the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. He
had been a telegrapher, and was serviceable in 1882 as a "scab" operator
during a strike of telegraphers. Henry DeLancey Webster, Universalist,
wrote lyrics for his namesake's music. Prof. J. P. Webster was not his
relative, but he had W. Lyman Stowe and Mrs. Levi Lee among his cousins.

NEWSPAPERS.

George Gale, with Francis Asbury Utter, a printer from Towanda,
Pennsylvania, began business June 2, 1845, on the upper floor of the Booth
R. Davis (brick) store, with a half-medium press and a few pounds of
type. The arrival of a newspaper press was delayed for five months, lint

-n | WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

the office began work at once. Its first job was to print blank forms for the
circuit clerk's use. Mr. Gale set about printing the first of several editions
of his book of legal forms which was finished in the following April. Friday,
August 8, 1845, the Western Star rose above the near eastern tree-tops, the
first newspaper in the county. Seven numbers were printed with new type
on good paper about the size of a quarter-sheet auction bill. A larger press
was needed and in November Mr. Gale bought of Hon. John Wentworth
("Long John") the old "pioneer press" on which the Chicago Democrat had
first been printed. The Star was then enlarged to "a wide twenty-column
folio." Mr. Gale had no mind in indulge in editorship as a pastime or as a
means to raise himself to "chairs or seats of civil power." He had advanced
the monev and had seen the enterprise fairly in motion, toward success, when
he sold his interest, in April, 1846, to his partner's father, Dr. Eleazar R.
Utter, who assumed the editorship. A few years later Charles Utter, another
son, became owner, the father remaining as editor. The paper, politically.
was for Free Soil. About 1854 Charles seems to have retired and his father
and brother, having become administration Democrats, changed the name of
the paper to Walworth County Reporter. The week after the election of
1856 they sold their office equipment to Densmore & Hotchkiss and in the
next spring removed to Trempealeau county.

In some way under Mr. Rockwell's patronage or by his inducement
Edwin A. Cooley came in 1SS4 and for two years, more or less, published
the Walworth County Democrat, and then went away into the mysterious
North or Northwest. Mr. Rockwell, the Drs. Henderson, Lot Mayo, and
Judge Cowdery were of that "old guard" of their party which was as
unchangeable as the laws of the universe.

In June, 1853, Edgar J. and Alonzo L. Farnum, from a farm in

leva, put forth the first number of the Elkhorn Independent, which soon

passed into James Densmore's ownership. He was a ready writer, but not

a printer, lie made the paper Republican, and kept its columns free from

the personalities so much Frank Titer's editorial stock in trade. He took

John Hotchkiss, the Reporter's Foreman, into partnership about 1855. In

the spring "t" [857 Irl. in. 1 & Utter came with their little office equipment

im Geneva and Hotchkiss, Leland & Utter having bought the Densmore

interest, became owners and editors <>t" the Walworth County Independent.

Utter n 1858 and in February, [861, S Fillmore Bennett came from

nook in Lake county, [llinois, and added himself :i- partner and editor.

end of the 1 nil war Mr. and Mrs. I. eland were owners and

mtinued in be until July, 1 S74. John 1). Devor emu

WALWORTH OirXTV. WISCONSIN. 305

a dailv paper at Galesburg. Illinois, to ownership and editorship at Elkhorn.
He was a clear, vigorous writer and a businesslike manager, neither courting
nor finding great personal popularity ; but he gave the paper some weight
among Wisconsin newspapers. In December, 1877, he sold the office to
James Wiley Sankey, from Holden, Missouri. Mrs. Dora Jemima (Peck)
Sankey undertook the triple labor of editing the paper, caring for her baby,
and nursing her dying husband. In December, 1878, Mr. Sankey died and
in January, 1879. Mortimer T. Park, from the normal school at Oshkosh,
and his cousin, Curtis R. Treat, a young printer from Clinton, took posses-
sion of a revised and improved Independent. In July, Mr. Park became its
single owner. In January, 1882, he admitted to partnership his excellent
foreman, Eugene Kenney, and in April of that year Major Shepard S.
Rockwood bought and edited the paper for one year, when Park & Kenney
resumed ownership. In 1899 Francis H. Eames was added to the firm.
In 1902 Mr. Kenney retired; and in 1904 Mr. Park retired, making way for
the present firm of Eames & Snyder. The press has aforetime been likened
to a lever which moves the world. The Independent's press, pen, and shears
have raised three editors and a foreman to places in public service : Mr.
Leland to a seat in the Assembly in 1873 and to the consulate at Hamilton,
Ontario; Mr. Cowdery to the county clerkship; Mr. Park to the assistant's
desk in the office of the secretary of state (at Madison), 1882 to 1890, and
to superintendency of the state's school at Sparta and Mr. Snyder to the
postmastership at Elkhorn. While Mr. Park was at Madison a series of
substitute editors performed his work at the home desk. Of these Mr.
Dewing, mid-84 to the end of '88, was the fittest and most acceptable. Del.
C. Huntoon, a semi-Bohemian from the Detroit press-gang, served until Mr.
Park's return, in 1891. He was a pleasant fellow, fairly versed in Michigan
politics, a client of Senator Palmer of that state, and an ex-inspector of
consular agencies in Ontario, where he became a brother-in-law of Rev.
Charles 11. Frazer, who was a clergyman, in turn, of three denominations:
Baptist, Congregational, Episcopal.

It may be noted that at some time after the Civil war Mr. Leland oc-
casionally used a thin device for dividing the Delavan paper's patronage in
the southwestern towns. This was to print part of his edition as the Darien
News, differing from his paper at Elkhorn only in its heading and in a
column of matter, local to that village, supplied by Orvellus 11. Gilbert.
About 1X70 he tried this ingenious plan at Lake Geneva. He thus hastened
the event that he tried to forestall, the establishment of a paper permanently
(20)

306

WALWORTH COUXTV. WISCONSIN.

at that city. His successors had better business judgment, and in 1892 Park
& Kenney's better taste restored the name of Elkhorn Independent.

Local chroniclers have incorrectly included among Elkhorn newspapers
the Conservator, of which one pamphlet number was published in 1857, and
the Live Man. which broke out irregularly between 1864 and 1868. Both
of these were planned and edited by Otis Preston and reflected bis extrava-
gant faith in the creative power of advertising. Both were printed at the
office of the Independent and might have been regarded as special editions
of that paper, the Conservator to advertise village lots at Elkhorn to all the
nations of the earth, the Live Man to advertise Elkhorn dealers to all the
buyers of the county.

With the business panic of 1873 came Isaac B. Bickford from Ogle
county, Illinois, to supply the political cave of Adullam with a county
"organ." He brought a slender stock of type-metal, but no press. October
18, 1873, and for twenty weeks thereafter, the IVahvorth County Liberal was
printed on the Independent's press. Eight weeks later, when Bickford ap-
pealed to the county committee for the sinews of war, that body decided
to buy the little he could sell, and to install Beckwitb & Kennev in his stead.
Editorially, the paper had been composed of, say, seven parts Bickford,
seventeen parts Spooner, and seventy-six parts Preston. Hence, it seemed
as if the Live Man hail been called back. Preston's peculiar oratory,
reduced to paper and ink, lost the wizardry of his vehement delivery and
neither convinced nor entranced but sometimes puzzled his readers. Gov-
ernor Spooner gave the paper the little distinction it ever earned. His
privately spoken criticism of the new editorship was caustic, kindly, and not
unprofitable. In the following summer Henry H. Tubbs was added to the
firm. But for two somewhat memorable events the later history of this
paper is not in itself interesting.

One of these was its exposure of some rather excessive severities of
discipline at the State School for the Deaf. Phis was on information derived
From three of the teachers The published statements, which made more
fluttering within the school and at three newspaper offices of the county than
elsewhere, were investigated, and a very judiciously prepared report of the
state board of charity and reform soon restored public confidence in the
school, though nobodj was specifically blamed. The principal resigned at
the close of the school year; but, excepting Rev. Thomas Clithero, who pre-
ferred the pulpit to the school room, all the teachers kept their places. The
principal was a gentleman, with a dyspeptic's temper, eminent in his pro-
fession, and he was quickly called to further usefulness in an Eastern
institution.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 307

The other event was the total destruction of the Liberal office building,
uninsured, with all its contents, also uninsured, by a fire which broke out
almost as suddenly as if by explosion, at nearly midnight of July 2, 1875.
James R. Browne, of Racine, had owned the building and Messrs Perry G.
Harrington, Albert Ogden, Stephen G. West, and Samuel A. White owned
the hand-press on which the paper had been printed. The publishers ac-
quitted themselves of carelessness and the property of spontaneous com-
bustion. Kenney went to the Independent office as its foreman and in time
became its part owner. Tubbs returned to compass, transit and level. The
fire had left nothing but the name of the paper and the editor's memory of
its subscription-list. Changing the name to Elkhorn Liberal and making the
paper Democratic, the Beckwiths printed twenty-five numbers, the last one
dated January 7. 1876. From its beginning this paper had derived half of
it- support from Republican patrons, one more proof of the kindly, tolerant
spirit of the people of Walworth.

An incident in the Liberal's business was a contract, for six months,
with Rev. George Willis Cooke, then of Sharon, to print his Liberal Worker
bi-monthly. Its purpose was to promote a provisional union or alliance of
several shades of unorthodox religion or philosophy. Some of the ablest
preachers of two states contributed their freshest sermons, and the quality
of its editorship may be inferred from the fact that the Houghton Mifflin
Company afterward employed Mr. Cooke as editor and critical annotator of
their new editions of Emerson's and Browning's works, and of other modern
classics.

Several members of the Prohibitionist county organization found it
expedient to encourage the establishment of a newspaper in its interest. A
stock company was formed, a printing office equipped, and April 17, 1891,
Charles E. Badger, a good job printer, put forth the first number of the
Walworth County Blade. In the fall of 1896 Henry H. Tubbs, a practical
printer and a stockholder, took upon himself the duties and difficulties of the
office, and afterward acquired its ownership. In a few of his several absences
from home (in railway work as a civil engineer) the office was leased
temporarily, and on other such occasions Mrs. Helen M. A. Tubbs managed
its business and editorship. Late in 1905 the Blade was discontinued and the
office was sold to a short-lived management which changed its name to
Tribune and made it a semi-stalwart Republican paper. Returning in 1906
to the Tubbs ownership, its material was sold and sent out of the countv.
Hi- war'- experience with the Liberal hail foreshown Mr. Tubbs
clearly that the Blade could live only by his personal labor and continuous

508 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

self-sacrifice; and his single-minded, whole-hearted belief in the justice of
the cause thus espoused was the one source of his tenacity of purpose. It
may well be doubted if another person in the county would have carried the
paper half way through its sixteenth volume. Mr. and Mrs. Tubbs closed
their business without debt or shadow of dishonor, and their almost heroic
resoluteness, with their personal qualities, enabled them to keep old friend-
ships and to gain the respect of men who were politically antagonistic. Mr.
Tubbs once received the compliment of a congressional nomination by his
party.

Town and village affairs had been administered from 1846 to 1892 by a
board of three supervisors, and from 1857 under a special charter. An
election was held May 3, 1892. under a general law of 1887, for a village
president and a board of six trustees. Harley C. Norris was president until
he became mayor. The twenty-one citizens who served as trustees were
Otto Arp 1894-5, George W. Bentley 1896, George B. Cain 1896, Augustus
F. Desing 1893, Charles Dunlap 1893-7, Egbert Francis 1892-3, S. Clayton
Goff 1892-6, John Hare 1897, Fred W. Isham 1894-5, John Keeffe 1893,
LeGrand Latham 1892, John Morrissey, of Church street, 1892-3, Herman
Nappe 1896, Thomas H. O'Brien 1892. William O'Brien 1897, John J.
Slattery 1897, Thomas E. Slattery 1892. George B. Sprague 1894-6, DeWitt
Stanford 1897, August Voss 1894-5, Philip S. Wiswell 1897.

Hon. Joseph F Lyon discovered or remembered, in [897, that chapter
326, laws of 1889, had made Elkhorn, as well as many villages, a city of
tin' fourth class, whereupon an election for city officers was held May 3,
1897, and three days later Governor Scofield's proclamation completed the
efflorescence from the village bud to the perfect flower of the city. The
first board of aldermen was: First ward, Augustus F. Desing, William
O'Brien; second ward, Samuel I'.reese, Jr., Charles C. Gaylord ; third ward,
F. Maxwell Porter, DeWitt Stanford. The new order began June 1, 1897.

Chairman oi the village board during the period of count] commissioner
government: William 11. Conger [862, '68-9; Horatio S. Winsor 1863, '66;
Edwin I lodges 1864-5, ()7-

Ml MBERS 01 t.u \n BOARD FOR VILLAGE.

Urban Duncan Meacham__. 1 Horatio Sales Winsor 1851

rge Gale 1847-8 LeGrand Rockwell 1852-3

Dr. Eleazer R. 1 ttei 1849 Otis Preston 1854-5. '59

George Henrj Young 1850 Alvah I. Frost 1856

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN:

309

Dr. Jesse Carr Mills 1857

John Flavel Brett 1858

Edwin Hodges 1860-1

Christopher Wiswell T870-1, '80

Wyman Spooner 1872

Ely Bruce Dewing 1873-6

Lucius Allen 1877. '81

Osmer C. Chase 1878

Dr. William Henry Hurlbut__ 1879

William James Stratton 1882-4

George Washington Wylie 1885

John Matheson 1886^9

Edward Harvey Sprague 1890

Harley Cornelius Xorris [891-2

George Matheson 1893

Abraham Cranston Norton__ 1894-5
John Harrison Harris 1896

COUNTY MEMBERS FOR CITY.

First Ward — John II. Hani-. [897-8; Edmund J. Hooper, [899-1907,
1910: James Matheson. 1908-9, 1911 ; Arthur ( r. ( Iroesbeck 1912.

Second Ward — Joseph F. Lyon. [897; George E. Pierce, [898, ojoo:
Walter E. Lauderdale. 1899; S. Clayton Goff, [901-4; Henry De L Adkins,
[905-8; L'harle- II. Nott, 1 909-1 1 ; Walter A. West, [912.

Third Ward — Dr. George H. Young, 1897-8. 1904: Thomas E. Slattery,
[899-1901, 1906; Edward H. Sprague. [902-3, 1905: Hiram X. Stubbs,
10117-8: Charles Freligh, [909; Henry De L. Adkins, 1910-12.

Mayors: Harley C. Xorris. 1897, 1902; John Dunphy (elected). [898;
DeWitt Stanford. [898; Dr. George H. Young, [899, [906; Dr. William II.
Hurlbut, [900; George Edmund Pierce. 1901; Jay Wright Page. [904; S.
Clayton Goff, [908, [910; Herbert Eugene Hartwell, 1912. Mayor-elect
Dunphy declined service and Mr. Stanford, as president of the council, acted
for the year. The first five elections were for one-year terms. Tn 1902 and
since the official term has been two years. Messrs. Dunphy, Page and
Young are Democrats. A health officer, city clerk, street commissioner, weed
commissioner, marshal, six school commissioners and nine library directors
are appointed by the mayor with consent of the council.

ASSOCIATE SUPERVISORS.

Lester Allen 1862-3, '66

Lucius Allen 1874

Alonzo Angel 185 1

Delos Brett 1857

George Bulkley 1864-5, '67

Hiram Shubael Bunker 1869

Nelson Catlin 187 1

William I lenry Conger [860 1

Augustus F. Desing 1890-1

Ely Bruce Dewing 1X70

\mov Eastman 1859

Julius Lyman Edwards 1868

Edward Elderkin 1858-9

Dr. Chester F. EHsworth___ 1875-6

3io

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Egbert Francis 1892

William Oakley Garfield— 1849, 53,

'55-6

Sidney Clayton Goff 1891-2

Daniel Parmelee Handy 1852

John Hare-— -1879

Robert Harkness 1867

Rufus Dudley Harriman__i878, '84

Horace Noble Hay 1846, '49

John \V. Hayes 1881

Robert Holley 1858

Benjamin Blodgett Humphrey. 1863

George Humphrey 1848

Fred Willard [sham 1886-8

David R. Johnson 1866

Mollis Latham 1872, '-", '80,

'82, '84.
fames Henry Lauderdale — 1 871, '75

Wilson David Lyon 1883

Lot Mayo 1848/53

Thomas W. Miller 1852

John Morrissey 1!5°5

Harley Cornelius Norris 1886-9

John Ashe Norris 1869

1847, "50

.1846, '55-6

Albert Ogden

Zenas < )gden

John Adams Perry 1879

Dwight Preston 1883

Harley Flavel Smith 1854, '60-2

Israel Smith 1870

DeWitt Stanford 1877-8

Squire Stanford- 1857, '68, '72-3, '82

Cyrus Cortland Stowe 1850-1

William James Stratton_i88o-i, 90

Charles Wales 1885

Walter Aaron West 1889

Horatio Sales Winsor — 1854. '64-5

Christopher Wiswell 1873-4. '76

Dr. George Henry Young 1847

CLERKS OF VILLAGE AND CITY.

Edward Elderkin [846

Edward Winne 1847

[ h Samuel Wirt Henderson [848

Eli Kimball Frost 1849

William Harrison Pettit 1850

Alvah J. Frost 1851-3

Myron Edwin Dewing 1854-5

1 harli I laniel Handy [856

I lcnr\ Bradle) [857 8, 60 2, '65 6,

'69 72

I liarles Lyon 1859

irts C Ste> ens 1863

I 1 . ! 1 1\ \dkins [86 1

eph S. f. Eaton 1867

John K. Burbank 1868

Oj en [873, '76, '80 1

Edward Marshall Latham. 1 874-5,

'82-3

1 liarles James Stratton 1884

Sidney Clayton Goff 1885

John Dunphy 1886-7

( lharles Cor I raylord 1888-9

Jay Forrest Lyon 1890-5

Henry De Lafayette \dkins_ 1896-8

Will Bartle Lyon 1899

foseph Hayden Webster 1900

George B. Sprague 1901

Will E. 1 >unbai 1902

William Opitz 1904

Harlej C. Norris 1908

Philip Sheridan Stewart 1912

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

TREASURERS.

Edwin Hodges 1846

Alexander S. Brown 1847

Amplias Chamberlin 1848

George Bachelder (app. ) 1848

Henry Hobart Hartson_'49-5i, 53,

'53

Hollis Latham 1852

Myron Edwin Dewing 1854-5

David R. Johnson 1856

John L. Holley 1857

Zebina Houghton J859

Alexander Stevens 1 860-1

Phineas C. Gilbert 1862-7

Joseph S. J. Eaton 1868-9

Waldo W. Hartwell 1870-1

Dvar Lamotte Cowderv li

■72-3

John Cromlev T874-J

Charles Lyon 1878-9

Harley C. Norris 1880-4

Samuel Mitchell 1885-6

Charles Frank Graff 1887

Orland Carswell 1888-9

Silas Rockwell Holden 1890-1

Arthur Tripp Waterbury 1892

LeGrand Latham 1893

George Henry Farrar 1894

George A. Burpee 1895-6

W. Christopher Nuoffer 1897-8

George B. Sprague. 1899- 1900, '02-3

Francis Maxwell Porter

1901. '04-07

Philip Sheridan Stewart 1908- 11

Will Slattery 19 12

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

Levi E. Allen 1888-9

Lucius Allen 1880-1

William Bell 1866-7

Henry Bradley 1861-74

William Worth Byington 1880-1

Arthur Clohisy 1897-1912

Horatio Seymour Dunlap 1881

Stephen R. Edgerton 1896-7

James Ervin Fuller 1888-1912

Robert Holley 18605

John Peter Ingalls 1889-91

Hollis Latham 1859-63, '77-8

Levi Lee 1867-8

Of the justices for this, as for other
each year, between 1846 and 1859, none

Joseph Foster Lyon

'79-80, '82-3, '85-98, 1901-2

Samuel Lytle 1905-8

John Matheson 1884-5

Lot Mayo 1859-60

Samuel Mitchell 1893-6

John Adams Perry 1870-84

William Harrison Pettit 1860-4

Harley Flavel Smith 1N71 </

George 1!. Sprague J892-3

Charles Wales 1884-7, '9I_4

Curtis I lusted W'insor 1870-1

George Edw in Wood 1007-12

George Washington Wylie__ 1895-6

towns, two of whom were chosen in
filed credentials at the circuit clerk's

rj2 WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

office. Hence, the officers-elect who qualified within that period are only
determinable in part and that from a great mass of loose papers.

In fifteen years, 1897 to 1911, inclusive, the citizens named have served
as aldermen: First ward — Aug. F. Desing. Charles Dunlap. William E.
Clough, George Kinne, Nathaniel Carswell. Herbert E. Hartwell, Timothy
Calahan, Dr. James M. Marsh. Fdw'd Morrissey, Fred'k Winter. W. Chr.
Yin il'fer : sccmid ward — Sam'1 Breese. Ch. C. Gaylonl. Abr. C. Norton. Geo.
W. Wylie, Walter A. West. Geo. H. Farrar, Albert J. Reed. John Keeffe,
Edw'd P. Ellsworth, J. Matt. Xiessen. Henry J. Noblet, John H. Lauderdale.
Michael Slattery, Michael Fay; third ward — F. Max Porter, DeWitt Stan-
ford, Herbert E. Hartwell. John Morrissey, Aha J. Rlanchard, Ch. Pieplow,
Rudolph H. Hoffman, John 11. Snyder, Jr., Thos. Keeffe. Fred'k J. Smith.
Win. Morrissey.

Postmasters for Elkhorn have been LeGrand 1\ ckwell, 1838; Edwin
rlo ges, [849: Lot Mayo, 1853; Henry Bradley, 1861 ; Wilson D. Lyon,
1886: Henry Bradley, 1890; Albert C. Beckwith, 1894; Thomas William
Morefield, [898; John 11. Snyder. Jr., tqii. In July. 1874. the office was
placed in the third class, but important changes in postage rate- reduced it in
July, [875, to the fourth class. It became a third class office in July. [882,
and a second-class office in [907. In 1908 a ten-year contract of the depart-
ment with Edward IT. Sprague removed it to its present place, at Walworth
and Broad streets. This office is the center of seven free deliver) routes.
which so operated as to discontinue the postoffkes at Cowers, Fayetteville.
Jacobsville, Lauderdale, Millard and Tibbets, and to divide with Lake Geneva
routes the business of Como and East Delavan.

PUBLIC I IN I I IKS.

For man) years it was generally felt that the village would be nearly help-
less in case of any considerable fire. \.bout [892 a rather loosely presented
proposition 1-. provide one or more public wells was rejected at a special elec-
tion In [894 the village board, acting on its own judgment, employed F. M.
Gray, of Milwaukee, to drill at the fool of Broad street, near the railway

n. This work was finished earl) in [895, an exhaustless supply of pure
been found at 1.050 feet. Passing through the drill the drill
mel Cincinnati shale ai 225 feet, Trenton limestone at 412 feet, Si Peter's
sandstone at 665 feet, Magnesian limestone at 700 feet, Potsdam sandstone at
950 feet, red sandstone at [,025 feet, and thence in that stratum 25 feel to the
bottom of the boring. Watei rose to a point 147 feet below the surface.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 313

At a special election, June 4, [895, it was decided by two-thirds of the
voters to issue honds to the amount of eighteen thousand dollars for construc-
tion and equipment of a system of water works. N. F. Reichert, of Racine,
began July gth the work of building power house and stand pipe, and of laving
street mains. All this led to reorganization of old firemen's companies, and
President Norris named Clarence N. Byington, George B. Cain, Aug. F.
Desing. Will G. Fowlston, S. Clayton Goff. Herbert E. Hartwell, David
Lowrv, Will P>. Lyon. Alonzo C. and Vernon H. McKinstry, Will E. Magill,
John Morrissey, John and Will Morrissey, W. Chr. Nuoffer, Will O'Brien,
Jr., Albert J. Reed. John Russell. Frank H. Stafford, with instruction to form
a hose company. This body was increased later to fifty men. and then divided
into two hose companies and a hook and ladder company. The chiefs of the
fire department, since [897, have been Will B. I. von, F. Maxwell Porter,
George O. Kellogg, Will Morrissey, Will E. Magill, Fred B. Magill, George
E. Burpee, George II. Farrar, Michael Morrissey, and, at present. Will E.
Magill again This department quickly became efficient for service, and also
for competitive drilling at various points in the state. The Magills have won
personal distinction on these latter occasions.

In 1898 it was determined at another special election to light the streets
with electric lamps, under city ownership of the system. Bonds were issued
to the amount of ten thousand dollars. Both these and the water bonds were
taken at home and at a small premium. In 1907 the council created an electric
light and water commission of five members for management of these public
utilities, the mayor and one alderman with three citizens not of the council.
The first and only appointed members were John 11. Harris. Jay W. Page and
Charles Pieplow.

A public library was among the good things of which Judge Gale and
other men of 184O had dreamed. A few wretched attempts were made, from
time to time for a half century, to create such an institution. In lanuarv.
[900, Edward II. Sprague, then about to improve bis lots at Walworth and
Broad streets, called a meeting at his public hall in order to disclose his
matured plan for a practically fire-proof building which should serve, among
other uses, for an "opera house" and a library room. On petition of a large
majority of citizens the city council passed an ordinance to establish such a
library and contracted with Mi'. Sprague for the use of a specially prepared
second floor in part of his building for a term of lifts years.

Charles Edward Sprague (1871-1892), the namesake of this library,
was eldest son of the owner of the building, lie was his father's confidential
friend, and the two had day-dreamed together of plans for making such an

3*4

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

institution at Elkhorn practicable. Mr. Sprague contributed about one hun-
dred volumes, of his own selection and of permanent value. Besides these and
seven hundred volumes from the government's printing office, the library was
opened September 2, 1901, with, say two hundred and fifty books acceptable
to general readers, and bought by public subscription. A few weeks later
Presidenl Dewing, of the directory, in behalf of himself and Miss Melvina,
his sister, gave six hundred and fifty volumes from the private collection of
their brother. Myron E. Dewing. These are shelved together as the "Dewing
Collection," and are still a most valuable part, as to their contents, of nearly
four thousand volumes now in possession. Mrs. Elizabeth Dixon Dewing has
since added about fifty volumes to the original collection. A few years ago
the "public documents" were turned over to the County Historical Society.

This library was instituted under statutory sanction. In 1900 Mayor
Hurlbut appointed a board of directors: Mrs. Anna W. M. Flack, Mrs.
Carrie E. Medbery, Alonzo C. McKinstry, for one year; Miss Jesse L.
Sprague, Jay F. I. yon. Albert C. Beckwith. for two years; Ely B. Dewing.
Jay W. Page, John II. Harris, for three years; Miss Sprague, Beckwith and
Page are still members; Mrs. Elizabeth Stanton Forbes. Fred W. Isham, Dr.
Edward FCinne have been members; and Miss M. Medora Hurlbut. Mrs.
Catharine Monahan Porter, Orland Carswell, Will E. Dunbar, Grant D. Har-
rington and Charles H. Nott are of the present board. The presidents have
been Dewing, Page, I. yon and Harrington. The librarian was Mae Irene
Ferris, and is Edna Lorene Derthick.

A chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution was instituted in
1010. with Margarel Medora Hurlbut as regent. She was succeeded in ign
by Mrs Ruth Eliza (Wales) [sham. There are fourteen members, and many
eligibles live within the chapter jurisdiction.

In the infancy of the village a little burial ground was set off in Wiscon-
sin street, near North street. This was soon abandoned and a new ccmc-
terv was badly laid out at the eastern end of Court street. This, too. has been
vacated and its area added to the fair ground, In 1 S74 a few really public-
spirited citizens moved to far better purpose. The ground was bought, near
the western end of Jefferson street, and was named Hazel Ridge. William
M. R French, landscape architect, of Chicago, made the plan, which nature.
time, and human ran have beautified. Its present area is about thirty-four

The firsl board of trustees was composed of Orland Carswell. William
II. 1 onger, David R. Johnson, William Thomas Jones. Jacob Ketchpaw,

II. Lauderdale, Wilson D. Lyon, Squire Stanford and Stephen G.
West. The several presidents of this board have been West. Ketchpaw. Lau-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN'. 315

derdale, Conger, Lucius Allen and Carswell. Superintendents: Jones, Henry
D. L. Adkins and Harley C. Xorris. Secretaries: Johnson, Dyar L. Cow-
den-, S. Clayton Goff. Treasurers : Conger, Jones, Lyon and Adkins.

The population of Elkhorn in 1850 was 42 ; at later census : i860, 1,081 ;
1870. 1.205; :88o. 1. 122; 1890, 1,447; 1900, 1,731; 1910, 1,707.

CHAPTER XXVI.

TOWN OF GENEVA.

At the first legislative naming of the towns of Walworth the southeastern
quarter of the county took its name from the lake which Mr. Brink had re-
christened in 1835, and from the village which began its growth the next
year. I le disliked such uncouthness as "Big Foot," and his ear was untrained
to the Algonquin euphony of Gee-zihig-waw-gid-dug-gah-bess ; but he found
in the scene about him some reminder of Seneca lake, with Geneva at its foot.
Since the lake before him was so much smaller than the village-bordered
eastern water, one name might serve very well for the lake that always had
been and the village about to be. He chose very well, since he might have
chosen so much worse. He might have given his own name to the lake, and
he had warrant of familiar examples for some such polysyllabic majesty as
" Megapi idopolis."

The towns of Bloomfield, Hudson and Linn were set off by one legisla-
tive act, human 23, [844, each for its home rule, leaving the name Geneva
to town 2 north, of range 17 east. Nearly three hundred acre- of sections 35,
56 lie beneath the bay-like foot of Geneva lake, and nearly a thousand acre-
are (or have been) covered by Duck lake (which Thomas McKaig new-
named "(.Minn"). In [846 the newer town of Elkhorn took away section 6,
\s a small offset to all this subtraction, the city of Lake 1 leneva includes about
1, e acres of section 3] of Lyons, and is likely enough to take part of section
1 of Linn at no very distant time. The outlet of the larger lake, called White
river, quickh leaves Geneva to cross Lyons and join the Fox at Burlington.
The outlet of Luck lake is a branch of White river, which it meets in section 20
of Lyons, having left section 26 and crossed sections 23, J| of Geneva and
section mi of Lyons. Luck lake is about three miles long and its average
width is more than a half mile. It was much wider within the memorj ot
man. but much of its marsh) border is now mown Jackson's creek in section
;. near the Lafayette line, drams sections ro, 9, 8, 17. 7 and flows south of
I horn to Delavan lake. fish are caught near its mouth, and cattle drink
ng its threadlike course. The surface of the town, excepting the basin of
Dick lake and the rather broad valley of its outlet, is generalh high prairie
and opening, with some knobbineSS near the northeastern corner, the south-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 317

western sections, between the lakes, and about the city. The highest point in
the county is near the northwestern corner of section 19, one thousand one
hundred and forty-nine feet above sea level, which slopes easily to the lower
levels adjacent. Several years ago the geodetic surveyors made this point a
signal station.

The northern and central sections — much the greater part of the town
—are among the most fertile of the county and were settled early by compe-
tent and prosperous farmers, stock raisers and dairymen. The somewhat
rougher sections were once heavily wooded, but are now cleared and culti-
vated. The county poor farm spreads over nearly two-thirds of section 4. In
section 24 are a church, town hall, and store, for a few years a cheese factory
(its business now transferred), a postoffice from 1896 until discontinued by
the establishment of a rural delivery route from Lake Geneva. This incipient
village is still named Como. John Chase's cheese factory, in section 10, in
active operation for many years, has been absorbed by the Wisconsin Butter
and Cheese Company. About 1837 Christopher Payne built a dam and saw
mill at Duck lake outlet and sold it to George W. Trimble, his son-in-law, who
sold it to Dr. Oliver S. Tiffany. With the coming of pine lumber the mill fell
into disuse, decay and forgottenness. In 1858 a rloocl carried away the relics
and the dam, lowering the lake and laying bare many acres of marsh meadow.
The forlorn looking cuts and dumps of the old Wisconsin Central Railway
Company are yet to be seen, yet a little more strongly marked than the Indian
mounds. Their course was across sections 36, 25, 26, 23, 14. 1 r. 10, 9, 8, 5
to the Elkhorn line. In 1-911-12 agents or operators were buying or in other
way acquiring a few real or shadowy rights of way along this line for a
proposed electric railway from Lake Geneva to Whitewater. New hope has
been raised, and though nothing substantial is assured, old and new hope may
soon end in fruition.

The whole area of improved land in 1910 was 1 9,413 acres, valued at
$1,584,500; average value per acre. $81.62. Acreages of principal crops,
1910, were: Barley. 093; corn, 3,073; hay field, 2,947 '• ";lts- -MS1 '■ orchard.
[38; potatoes, 104: rye. 54; timber, 2,425; wheat, 82, Returns of live stock
were: 3,064 cattle. $79,100; 686 hogs $6,900; 759 horses, $62,000; 59]
sheep. $2,000. Valuation of town. 3.596 per cent, of thai of whole county.

Population of town (including village, in [850 and [860); [850, 1.557;
[860, 2.272: 1X70. 1.030: [880,930; [890, [,073; [900, i.i'ii: [910, 1.142.

Patents issued from the land office in the following named persons are
recorded at the county seat: Alanson ('lark Well, section 2^,; Harrison
Augier, 1. 12: William Werill. 17: John S. Bacon, 2: Lewis Baldwin, 29;

Jl8 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

[ohn Barr, Sr., 10, 15; Hiram Beals, 30; Anson Bell, 11; James Alexander
Bell, 4; Joseph Bennett, 14; Daniel S. Benton, 3, 9, 10; Charles Boyle, 12, 13;
Daniel Edwin Bradley. 7: Milo Edwin Bradley, 1; Deodat Brewster, 1; Ar-
thur Bronson, 34; Charles P. Brown. 29; John Brown, 33; Amos and Hiram
Cahoon, 1 1 : Amos Cary, 35; George and Simon Williams Clark, 35; George
Coburn, [9; Louis Leander Cook, 4; Seth Cowles, 9, 15; Lewis Curtis, 28;
Charles Dickerman, 18; Samuel Dunbar, 7: John Dunlap, 10, n; Baronet V.
Eckerson, 30; Ephraim P. S. Enos, 20; John Evans, 32; Andrew Ferguson,
26; John Powell black and Thomas Flack, 3 ; Richard Baker Flack, 9; George
Gale, 3; Ludwig Giese, 32; Samuel Gott, 24: Elihu Gray. 9; Alvah Grow, 3;
Daniel I'annelee Handy, 30; Noah Harriman, 14; Edmund Storrs Harvey,
13, 18: John Haskins, 26; Alonzo Herrick, 9; Jacob Herrick, 21; William
I). Ilolbrook, 31 ; Mason A. llollister. 32; Harvey Houghton, 30; John Hut-
ton. 19; Seth W. Kelley, 10; Jacob Kenel. 2.1; George Lamberson, 4; James
Lewis, 13: Thomas McKaig, 25; Gurdon Saltonstall Murdock. 18; Joseph
Musgrave, 21; Cyril Leach Oatman; Zenas Ogden. 1, 21; Jasper William
Peat, 7; Anthony Peck, 10: Jason Peck. 9; John R. Peck. 2; William Pent-
land, 7; Eveline H. Porter, 1 ; Langdon Cheves Porter, u ; Newton Rand, 27:
Alanson C. Reed, 23; Leland M. Rhodes, 15; Brittain Ross. 15; Morris Ross,
1 |. 15; William Pangburn Ross, 22; William Rounds. 19; Nehemiah Rouse,
10; Adam Martin Russell, 17; Robert Emmett Russell. 24: Daniel Ryan. 34:
John Carpenter Schuyler, 25; Hiram Spencer, 19; Oliver P. Standish, 10:
Edward Stevens, 13: Sanford Wait. 12; Greenleaf Ste\ens Warren, 3: Rob-
ert Wells Warren, 4. ^,2, 35; Joseph Webb. 8; George Weller. 35; Barton
Brenton Wilkinson, 13: Israel, Sr.. and Royal Joy Williams, 31: Silas
Wright. 23.

William Averill married Eliza Monahan, March 2, 1N44.

fohn Barr 1 [792 [860), son of Allen, came From Scotland with wife
Barbara Black, lie died in Linn, to which town he had removed.

Hiram Beals 1 [809 [880) was son of Daniel Beals (bom 1767) and
Hannah Wheat 1 horn 1770), and grandson of Richard Beals; came in 1843
from Cummington, Massachusetts, to section 30, Geneva, with wife Rebecca
1 iris; (1812 [883), daughter of William and Rebecca \xtel. who were
cousins

Charles Boyle (died [869) married, second. Marjory Brown, October
24. [841.

Deodal Brewster I C789 t88i l, a native of Connecticut ; wife named Lois
1872); had several descendants in North Geneva.

\nio-, Cahoon 1 [789 [860) ; married Mary Williams 1 [796 [874

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 319

George Coburn (1810-1897) married Charity (1S07-1897), daughter of
John and Margaret Reichard, both of Livingston county, New York. He
lived for long across the town-line road in section 24, Delavau, and died at
Elkhorn.

Samuel Dunbar (1806-1872) came from Belfast in 1833 to New York;
to Geneva 1839; married, first, Elizabeth Thompson 1 [809-1852); second,
Mrs. Mary (McDougall) Streeter. His family seems to have become per-
manent in the countv.

John Dunlap (1796-1879) was son of Robert, a soldier of the Revolu-
tion, and Mary Letts. He married, first, Cynthia Kinne, who was mother of
his children; second, Hannah, daughter of Samuel Armstrong and Mary
Gregg.

Ephraim P. S. Enos died March 20, i860, leaving wife Polly, daughter
of Melzer Dinsmore.

Daniel P. Handy's will was dated March 4, 1868, and proved June 25,
same year. He married successively Maria and Lydia Wheat Beals. daugh-
ters of Hiram Beals and Hannah Wheat. Lydia W. died in 1868.

Noah Harriman (1805- 1903) married Lucinda Davis in 1826, — both of
Vermont. He lived for several years in Lafayette and died at Elkhorn. He
was a farmer and a licensed exhorter of the Methodist church.

Edmund S. Harvey (1819-1899) was son of Thankful, daughter of
Bethuel Robinson, of Willington, Connecticut. He came to Geneva in 1840
and permitted himself to forget his father's, step- father's and half-sister's
names. His first wife, Nancy A. Fowle, married July 11, 1841, was his chil-
dren's mother.

John Haskins 1 '1811-1887) married Olivia X. (Vose), widow of John
Seymour. John Vose Seymour, of Lake Geneva, was her son. John and
James Haskins bought and improved the water power in section 25, and be-
came residents of the village.

Moses S. Herrick died in 1872. [lis wife was Julia Ann. daughter of
Jacob Herrick and Roxana Bradley.

Mason A. Hollister (born 1S1S1. son of John, son of Elisha (as told),
married Matilda (born 1834). daughter of John Dalton.

William Pentland died in 1845. He left sons who were long known as
farmers of the northern part of the town.

Langdon C. Porter married Eunice Wright, March 13. 1844.

William I'. Ross (1812-1887), son of Morris, married Polly Maria.
daughter of Jacob Herrick. Their son. Washington (burn [845), was a
soldier of the Civil war.

320 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Nehemiah Rouse (1803-1874), son of Anthony, married Maria, daugh-
ter of Henry Plate. She died in 1875. One of their eight children was Han-
nah, wife of Ethan B. Farnum.

Hiram Spencer (1799-1878), son of Noah, came in 1845. His wife,
Lois (1804-1883), was daughter of Nathaniel Moseley and Charlotte Dewey.
This family had several local connections by marriage.

Edward Stevens (1813-1893) had wife Adeline (1808-1885). A son,
.Martin E. (born 1840), was a soldier of the Twenty-second Infantry. A
daughter, Emma, was born in 1843.

Many of the early settlers of Geneva, like those of other towns, had large
familias, and a minute division of land was avoided by westward emigration.
Thus it not seldom happens that they are represented, if at all, at the old
homes by the children of daughters. In the sub-pioneer period, too, there
appeared many whose names, once heard daily, are already becoming but mem-
ories. Among these disappearing- names are Baggs. Bagnell, Case, Chase,
Clap]), (iates, Goodspeed, Hand, Howe, Jackson, Lytle, Phelps, Potter. Vin-
cent and Wales. Some of the old families, however, are yet to be found in the
villages and the adjacent towns.

In summer automobile tourists from Chicago and the farthest east find
one of their principal routes through Bloomfield into Geneva and thence by
Elkhorn, Sugar Creek, Lagrange and Whitewater to the sub-polar regions. — ■
literally tearing up the miles and flinging them behind in long-hovering clouds
of dust.- tn men of the Civil war a reminder of the march of armies. In their
wildest battle-inspired dreams neither Big Foot nor Christopher Payne ever
saw an endless procession of invincible "shovers" taking each his imperial
right of way across counties ami states. Bui the prophet .Valium may have
foreseen the age of gasoline ami rubber-tired chariots.

At the lir^t two elections the original town of Geneva, as yet undivided,
was twche miles square. In 1N44 the four towns chose each its own local
■ ifficers, its chain nan being als, > a member of the count) board of supen isors.
The return to commissioner government [862-1870 — relieved the chairmen
i>f lli.it period from dut) as board members.

\1 EM BERS OF COUNTY BOARD U*D CHAIRMEN.

[ohn M. Capron _ - 1 S4 _> lharles Moorhouse Goodsell 1849

rhomas Hovi [843 David Williams [851-2

[ohn V Farnum 1844-7. '53 [oseph Gates 1854

Simeon William Spafard [848, '50 Charles W. Smith [855 6, 58

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Alonzo Potter ^57

Dr. Alexander S. Palmer__i859-'6i

Osborn Hand „ 1862

Samuel Henry Stafford 1863, 'yy

Shepard O. Raymond 1864

Cyril Leach Oatman 1865-6, '70

Charles Dunlap 1867-9, '72-6

James Simmons 1871

Charles Palmitier 1878

William H. Hammersley 1879-85

Henry S. Bull 1886-7

Washington Ross 1888-9

Daniel D. Fairchild 1890-1, '95

Henry J. Xoblet 1892

William Edmund Dunbar 1893-4

William Dwight Wales 1896-99

William Penn Dunlap 1900-4

William Thomas Taylor 1905

Robert J. Lean 1906

C. Monroe Gates 1907-1 1

Charles Wurth 1912

ASSOCIATE SUPERVISORS.

Harvey E. Allen 1863'

Charles Minton Baker 1870

Joel Barber 1868

Frank I'. Brewster 1894

Ira Brown 1852

William Worth Byington.1867. '72-4

Amos Cahoon i845-'8, '54

Alvah Chandler 1845-8

Arriestus D. Colton 1862

Martins Dyar Cowdery 1873-''

Ebenezer Dayton 1843

A. Pierre Deignan 1895

Christopher F. Deignan

1888-90, '98-1912

James J. Dewey 1866

William Edmund Dunbar 1886-7

Charles Dunlap 1863-6, '71. '~~~8.

> niel D. Fairchild 1881-85

Ethan I'.. Farnum 1857. '60

T'llm Allen Farnum 1845

Gideon E. S. Fellows 1861

Andrew I erguson .__i85r>7

LI n Gray (-'lack 1889

Richard llaker Lack 185]

(21)

Ethan Lamphere Gilbert 1882-5

James Gray 1852

Joseph Griffin 1855

William II Hammersley 1875-8

Jared I land 1859-60

Jesse Hand 1842

James Haskins 1844. '50

John Haskins 1851, '53

Apollos Hastings 1858

Alexander Henry 190V'1

Jacob Herrick 1844, '49

Jason A. Herrick 1880

Levi Jackson 1854, '69-71

Robert J. Lean [896-1900

Thomas McDonald 1891 -<i|

William K. May 1842

Laac Moorhouse 1892

ILnn J. Noblet 1893, '95

Cyril 1.. Oatman 1864

Edward Pentland 1879-80

Ellery Channing Petrie [907-12

Cyrus King Phelps r888

Alonzo Potter . 1856

Ed \\ a n 1 Qti igley 1&65

William II. Reynolds ioor-4

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

Harrison Rich J859

Michael Rouse 1881. '87

William Rouse 1890-1

Sylvester Curtis Sanford 1853

Albert !•'.. Smith 1867-8

Harvey S. Stafford 1872

Samuel Henry Stafford 1861. '79

Oliver P. Standish 1862

Edward Stevens ^49

Charles Wales t^SS- '58-9

Festas A. Williams 1888. '96-7

James <i. Williams 1850

rows CLERKS.

Lyman Redington 1842

Lewis Curtis 1843

James Simmons ^44

Erasmus Darwin Richardson

.1845-6, '50

Simeon Williams Spafard 1847-8

Thomas McKaig 1849

Dr. Clarkson Miller 1851-2

I'.tni. Blodgett Humphrey.. 1853-4
Simeon Gardner 185^

Jonathan T. Abel! 1856-66

John A. Smith 1867-8

Charles Edwin Buell 1869-71

William II. Hammersley 1872-3

John Bell Simmons 1874-85

A. Pierre Deignan 1886-7

Lewis Ceorge Foster 18SS

William Dwight Wales 1889-qT

Frank Abbott 18Q2-8. 1900-12

\lbert Dinsmore t S< j< 1

TOWN* TREASURER.

Charles Minton Laker [842-3

Foster V. Howe 1844-6

Lewis Curtis i S47

Andrew Ferguson 184.x

John Marsh 1849-50

Joseph Gates 1851

Simeon Williams Spafard 1852-3

Linus Emerick 1854

Linn Andrus 1^55. '~,j

Thomas Baker Cra\ ._i856, '74^85

William I. Valentine [858-60

George M. Barber 1861-63

Ralph T. Moody 1864

William H. Lee 1865-6. '69

Schuyler S. Hanna 1867

William Alexander 1868

Sylvester Curtis Sanford. 1X70-1

John Burton '872-3

Arthur G Palmer [886-7

Albert Dinsmore 1888-94

William II. Howe '895-9

Samuel James Dunbar 1 900-6

John McLean 1907-12

JUSTICES OF THE PI \« I .

han T Vbell [86 1 ~

Thomas Vshe 1904 5

Charles Minton Laker 1871

Warren Beckwith r859-6o, "75-80

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

Francis A. Buckbee 1877-86

Henry S. Bull 1874-7, '80-1

James F. Campbell-- 1888-91. 1904-5

Nelson B. Campbell 1908-11

Martins Dyar Cowdery 1872-4

Frank J. Dalrymple

1 896- 1 903, 'oA- 12

\. Pierre Deignan 1886

Alliert Dinsmore 1900-1

Charles Dunlap 1866-7, 71

Daniel D. Fairchild 1889-90

Bezaleel W. Farnum 1861

Floyd E. dray 1891 -5

Thomas Baker Gray 1861-4

Tared Hand 1864-5

Joseph Spencer Hand 1886

George D. Johnson__'95-i902, '05-8

Thomas F. Johnson 1885-6

Matthew E. Lee 1887-8

Bernard McGuire 1894, '97-1900

Cyril Leach Oatman-_ 1859-60. '63-6
Washington Ross ___ 1878-9. '82-88

Michael Rouse 1865-8

Stephen Bemis Van Buskirk_i 870-1

James N. Webster 1892-7

Collins M. Williams 1900-2

Mr Abell's service as justice began in 1851 and continued nearly without
interval until his death. February 8, 1867.

CHAPTER XXVII.

CITY OF LAKE GENEVA.

Solomon Juneau, in May, 1836, had told Charles A. Noyes, just arrived
from Chicago, of golden possibilities lying between the lake and Rock river,
and especially of the mill section at Geneva lake. He said that Hodgson and
Brink had left two of their men to make such improvements as were needful
to secure their claim to the whole section, and that as soon as their surveying
contract should be finished they were going there to improve the water power
and to build a town. The prospects looked fair to Mr. Noyes and with his
cousin, Orrin Hatch Coe, he again left Chicago, reaching the disputed claim
about May 21st, after much wandering in five counties. He found there
three log houses, all occupied. One of these, just within the town of Linn,
was Thomas Hovey's; one, southeast of the outlet, was occupied by Hodgson
and Brink's men : and one, across the outlet, by Christopher Payne.

Ostrander and Henry explained that they had been to Milwaukee for
provisions ami had overstayed by three weeks for a "little spree with the buys."
Returning, they had found that Payne and Mosher had been a fortnight in
possession, within which time they had built their cabin, and that they were
indisposed to heed an informal notice to quit. Payne some time afterward
admitted that he had seen Brink's claim marks, but thought them somebody's
tomfoolery. Noyes and Coe bought a quarter interest in the whole claim
for five hundred dollars, of Ostrander and Henry, who acted as agents and
in their own behalf as co-claimants. Hodgson ratified the sale, though he
could ii"i for some weeks return in treat or fight with Payne. Noyes having
advised compromise, t<> which Payne was not averse, he staked out a race
as a first step in mill building. In the following night, without consulting
Noyes, Messrs. Ostrander and Henry tore out Payne's framework for a dam
across the outlet. The next day Coe went eastward for money and Noyes
soon set out for a millwright at Milwaukee. They had previously cut and
hauled logs fur two houses, and Noyes enjoined his men not to overstep the
ii-i 1I1 nid south quarter line temporarily dividing the rival claimants. At
his 1. om Milwaukee he found his caution had been disregarded and

one house was finished.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 325

Payne, too, had been away and had brought from Belvidere James Van
Slyke and wife. He moved this family by night into the new house, as the
Noyes party learned next morning from the smoking chimney. A half-
dozen men rushed into the cabin before Payne could take his gun, marched
him to his own house which they demolished, performed a ring dance around
him. and banished him with threats to drown him if he should come back.
He and Van Slyke went away, leaving Mrs. Van Slyke to their enemies,
who made her as comfortable as they could. Two or three days later the
first white native of Walworth county was born. Noyes learned all this on
his return with the millwright. He says: "Ostrander and Henry were wild
with glee in relating to me the heroic exploit of driving off the old man
Payne. I deprecated it, and told them an arbitration of the settlers ought
to be the first resort (there being no legal authority), and further, I told
them they need not flatter themselves they were rid of Payne. If physical
force was to decide the contest he would acquire it if possible, and that ere
long. I dampened their glee and incurred their displeasure by denouncing
their conduct."

A week later Payne came with two wagon-loads of warriors and drove
toward the new house. Noyes, with a hickory cane and a half-dozen com-
rades, placed themselves on guard at the door. As an equal number of the
enemy came up Xoyes spoke and said : "Gentlemen, you come with as much
noise and gusto as though you had some important project in view."

"Yes."' says Schoonover, one of Payne's champion fighters, "we've come
to drive out a d — d lot of land pirates, and reinstate Uncle Payne as the only
rightful proprietor to this mill section. We have brought tools necessary to
put up a mill and settle the country around the lake, and if force is required
we are ready."

To this Noyes answered that he did not believe they would begin fight-
ing without first knowing all the facts. These he set forth from his point
of view, reminded them that there were other claimants al>out the bay whose
rights must be protected according to settler's rules, and said that if they
should choose to remain on Payne's disputed quarter-section he would not
interfere until Hodgson should arrive. But they must not meddle with the
rest of the section nor with individual claims.

Schoonover asked who Noyes called himself, to show so much authority;
said tint soft words would not win; that he believed the} were land pirates and
had no just claims there: that the next day hi- party would begin to build
a mill and settle the country; that they would paj no attention whatever to
the rights pretended. Payne, with other- who had been in the rear, came
forward, and tin- Noyes manuscripl runs a little way thus:

526 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

"Schoonover says, 'Uncle Payne, what will you put in the house?"

"1 told him that Van Slvke. if he thought himself worthy, could enter;
hut none other of their party.

" 'Just as I expected,' says Schoonover, 'we have got to fight and we
may as well begin. Just form a circle, call in any two of your men at a time,
and if I get tired before I whip you all, friend Gilbert will spell me."

"This started Sam Brittain's Saxon ( for he was English). He steps
forward and says: T> — n you! threaten of whipping us all? Will you try
me first?'

"1 jumped between with my shillelah and said: 'Hold on boys! Better
sleep one night over it before shedding blood, for that won't end it." Payne
called Schoonover back, had a short chat with him, and began to unload and
arrange for night quarters on the greensward. Van Slvke walked demurely
into the cabin, and we left, to ponder on the morrow."'

The next day the Payne party, having looked about, traced claim lines,
and consulted, went after dinner to cut logs on the quarter west of the Payne
claim, and began to haul them to the site of his house. By night they had
them piled nine logs high and ready for the plates. Xoyes then told them
that they had been cutting logs on Eggleston's claim, that he had gone to
.Milwaukee for provisions, and that they could see evidence of his ownership.
Schoonover and Gilbert, scarred bullies from the Kishwaukee. "told me to
go to h — -, to protect ourselves if we could, for they intended next day to put
up five or si\ house bodies on the other side of the outlet; and it' we would
help them they would treat, tor they had a bit of rum."

Noyes walked awa\ quietly and Payne's men thought themselves mas-
ter- nu.it inn. \ I'ter their supper they entertained themselves by
whooping, yelling, drumming on empty barrels, firing small anus, and they
kept up these senseless noises all night. In the morning Mr. Winchester, who
had come with his wife ami child from Milwaukee, asked Noyes if he had
-l.pi "Not much, but l'\e dreamed some good." "Let us have it." "Well,
when they come over to put on their plates let us go down and cut up their
bailding." Said Winchester, "That's my hand. Mayn't I be captain?" As a
mi I 'a\ ne's men crossed the outlet Captain Winchester marched toward
them at the head of ten men with shouldered axc-

"When within -ix Feel of Payne, Winchester made a bound, -lapped one

hand on his righl shoulder, and gave two or three -hakes, and it wa- no

maiden's grip, I as-ure you, for said Winchester, although his weight did

ceed one hundred tifn pounds, had more strength of muscle, especially

■'id arm. than anyone I ever knew. Payne turned hi- head to speak.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. $2J

Winchester, with the other fist drawn, says: 'No* a word, or I go through
you like a streak of lightning. You yelled enough last night.' At that,
Pavne attempted to put his right hand in his pocket, which Winchester pre-
vented. Thus far none of Payne's party had moved from the plate. Win-
chester now says, 'Boys, demolish that building." Tom Spriggs and self,
who stood next to Winchester, sprang up with the rest; hut no sooner up
than Schoonover and Gilbert circled around toward us. We jumped down
and met them with drawn axes. Says Schoonover: "What! use axes to
fight?" I told him I despised the idea of striking such scoundrels with my
fist, and that axes were quite as humane as pistols and muskets with which
they had tried to frighten us."

Payne here called Schoonover aside for further conference while Win-
chester's axemen chopped down the house. Schoonover came back smiling,
admitted that the boys were pretty good soldiers, but he now believed more
than ever that Payne was in the right. He said he had advanced five hun-
dred dollars on a contract to pay nine hundred dollars for one-ninth interest
in the claim, and Gilbert and others had contracted similarly. He further
said: "I'll tell you what we are going to do. We find you are too many
for us, and we, or most of us, are going to mount our horses and put out
for help. I can raise forty men on the North Kishuaukee and Payne at least
thirty on the South, and in a week we shall be back with seventy men, armed
as the law directs, and then you can fight as you please."

To this answered Noyes: "Go! you can't scare up five more such
scoundrels as yourself in all Illinois; and as for advancing five hundred dol-
lars, 1 don't believe you are worth five hundred cents."

Whereat Schoonover: "You are too many for a rough and tumble, but
if I can have a fair fight, with no interfering, I'll pledge myself to whip
your crowd."

Brittain stepped forward, saying. "A fair fight is my hand. Now pitch
in."

Schoonover pitched in, but was quickly pitched out with a pair of black-
ened eyes and a bloody nose. Brittain stumbled and Schoonover fell upon
him "with a thumb for each eye;" but. baffled here, he tried to bite off Brit-
tain's nose. Sprigg here interfered and asked if this was fair fighting.
Schoonover ran for an axe and Sprigg met him with another one. Here
this Homeric battle ended with a few more "winged words." Payne long
afterward told Noyes that his men had at first intended to take their firearms
with them, but changed that notion. He had forgotten to pocket his own
derringer. lie said he was glad tlu-rc were no such weapons at hand. r\~r

528 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

there would have been corpses at Geneva that day. The Kishwaukeeans re-
tired with threats to come again, and Noyes resumed work on his race and
mill- framing.

Three weeks after the battle a new party came 'from Chicago by way
of Marengo. While the late contention was in progress Mosher and Van
Slyke had slipped away and. representing themselves as sole claimants at
Lake Geneva, had tried to induce Lewis B. Goodsell, George L. Campbell
and Andrew Ferguson to buy their rights, which they offered at a low rating.
Goodsell had known Van Slyke at Cooperstown, and did not fully trust him;
but he risked and lost four hundred dollars. Mosher then went out into
the vastness of Illinois, and Walworth knew him no more. Payne heard of
this sale and, as he was unable to renew war. he went to Chicago and thus
Goodsell learned some useful truth. Hodgson, too, was sent for, and came
from Waukesha. He first offered to sell to Noyes and Coe a half-interest
in the mill section, if Ostrander and Henry would sell their shares; but these
men saw some larger advantage in holding them. Hodgson then offered to
give his quarter-interest if his past expenses were paid. But Noyes had now
some larger plans. The Goodsell party had found R. Wells Warren at St.
Charles and had taken him into their partnership, and to these men Hodgson
sold his own and Brink's rights — without the latter's knowledge or approval.
Payment of two thousand dollars left the Goodsell-Warren party in posses-
sion and the settlement of Lake Geneva went peaceably forward unto this
day.

Mr. Xoyes could write of himself and his affairs from his own knowl-
edge, but may have been somewhat at fault as to the negotiations between
Hodgson and the newcomers. There arc other accounts of this business and
its attendant incidents, and it is probable that Mr. Simmons has written with
substantial correctness. The history of a land title, however, is of less pres-
ent interest than that of the rise of a city.

Mr. Warren was a practical and competent business man, and his co-
partners were nol merely speculators. The race was finished and a sawmill
began work in March, [837. In [838 Charles M. Goodsell was given a lease
of water power for four years, without charge, and he built a grist mill,
which began t" grind in October. Mr. Warren bought this mill and worked
it until [848, when lie built a larger one. There was another water power,
with a fall of twelve feet, in section -'5. within the present city limits, first
imed, it is said, by P. O. Sprague, but was soon in possession of Sidney
who sold in 1S42 to James and John ! laskins. These men built a saw-
mill the nest year. In 1875 the Crawford Reaper Company for a few vears

WALWORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN. 329

found larger use for this power, and then it became again the property of
John Haskins.

In 1837 the seven owners of section 36, namely, R. Wells Warren,
Greenleaf S. Warren. Dr. Philip Maxwell, Col. James Maxwell, Lewis B.
Goodsell, Andrew Ferguson and George L. Campbell, employed Thomas Mc-
Kaig to survey and plat the village of Geneva. This work was finished and
recorded in May, 1840. Two blocks were reserved for parks, one for a
cemetery, and also ground for churches and school. The base line of this
survey was that part of the highway from Kenosha to Beloit lying within the
village limits, and was named Main street. Other early villagers named were
Charles M. Baker, Henry Carter, William Casporus, W. Densmore Chapin,
George Clark, Arnestus D. Colton, Dudley Wesley Cook, Experience Esta-
brook, Benjamin E. Gill, Joseph Griffin. Thomas \\". Hill, Thomas Hovey,
Thomas McKaig. Dr. James McNish, Russell H. Mallory, Charles A. Xoyes,
Cyril L. Oatman, Amos Pond, Samuel Ross, Ransom A. Sheldon, Simeon
W. Spafard, Horace Starkey, Dr. Oliver S. Tiffany, Cornelius P., Philander
K. and William II. Van Yelzer, Asahel ]'. and Jonathan Ward, Thomas D.
Warren. Lucian Wright. Several of these men owned land in other towns
and some of them lived in these towns.

TAVERNS AND HOTELS.

R. Wells Warren's first log house was earth-floored and was heated by
a fireplace at one end, which, for several months, had no chimney but a hole
in the roof. Being also a hotel, it was furnished with a long bench and four
bedsteads. The latter were each of oak rails naturally supported at one end
by thrusting between the logs of the cabin wall, and artificially at the other
end by a single stake with cross-head. The bedding was of wild grass. In
1837 Mr. Warren built a real hotel, at Main and Centre streets, near the old
house, and January 8, 1838, entertained one hundred ninety guests, mostly
dancers, from near and far, from whom he collected about seven hundred
dollars — for in that golden age there were no bad accounts. \biel Manning
and Albert A. Thompson occupied this house, the Geneva Hotel, in 1843.
Apollos W. Hastings bought it in 1844 and in 1848 rented it to Harrison
Rich. Harvey E. Allen bought and occupied the h"use in 1851, and sold it
to Sabra Delaware in 1856. In 1859 Asa W. Fair bought it at a bankrupt
sale and sold it to Lansing D. Hale and others. In [858 Nelson Pitkin came
from Kenosha, took the house 1 probably as tenant 1. and named it Commer-
cial Hotel. He was a little, bewigged, old-fashioned Connecticut innkeeper

33°

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

who may have been in his flay, then long past, a militia officer, and must have
been a relative of several distinguished namesakes. He had seen better days,
and he showed what landlord manners were in 1820. But to sit at his table
was to know something of Barmecide feasts; for the times were very hard,
he was poor and a stranger, and the other hotel had most of the public favor.
Philo B. Baird was landlord in i860, but it is not learned whether this was
for one year or for five years. In 1806 John Christian was tenant. In 1869
the house became a boarding house for the Geneva Seminary for a term of
two years. In 1872 B. K. Cowles leased the house and named it St. Denis.
The latest proprietor, as here remembered, was George W. Ransford, from
about [875. In [895 the house was pulled down and its site is yet bare.

Greenleaf S. Warren built the Lake House at Main and Broad streets,
in 1837, and was its landlord. His brother, Thomas D. Warren, and his
brother-in-law, Arnestus D. Colton, each about 1845, succeeded, and in 1846
Mr. (niton rented it for two years to Harrison Rich, but returned as land-
lord and remained until about 1862. when he sold it to Peter Van Slyck.
Samuel H. Stafford bought and occupied it in 18(4 with John S. Griffin, his
brother-in-law, as partner in business. The house had been extended from
time to time, and Mr. Stafford made further improvements. Other landlords
were Edwin Woodman. W. G. Barrett, George W. Ransford, Orlando Leon-
ard Blakesley and his brother William, and Aaron L. Yanderpool. About
1892 the house was further altered and improved and was new-named Staf-
ford House. At some time since it l>ecame the Hotel Florence. Its old oak
franu- has been time-tested, but its end may be near, for there is much talk of
building in the present century's style.

David T. Whiting built a wholly new hotel by the lakeside, at the foot
of Broad street, in 1873, and named it for himself. It was planned to
nurt the wants of summer visitors to the already famous lake. It was four

1 high, built of v\ 1 in the somewhat omatr style of that period. It

had competent managers, and it- business for several years justified the cost
of its building and furnishing forty thousand dollars or more, it is said.
It was burned to the ground in July. [894, and the lots on which it stood
ed to new ownership.

The Union House, opened in 1870 by Benjamin Fish, in Broad street,
near the railway, and kept by John Kohn in 1NS1. is mentioned 1>\ Mr. Cutler,
but not by Mr. Simmons \ store was moved From Main street and joined
to this house, which in [892 became the Garrison House, and about 1804 'fie

1 Denison. Outwardl) it is a homely gambrel-roofed house, but its
management within makes all needful amend-. This house, like the Hotel
- likeh to be rebuilt in n< >t mam years more

wai.worth county, Wisconsin 33 1

EARLY BUSINESS MEN.

Charles M. Goodsell built a grist mill in 1838 and worked it for nearly
four Years, on liberal terms given by the proprietors of the village as to use
of the water power, and custom came to him from afar — even from the Lake
Michigan shore and Rock river valley. But he steadfastly refused to grind for
distillers' use About 1842 R. Wells Warren bought the mill and worked it till
1848. when he built a new and improved one. In 1854-5 lie sold this property to
the brothers, Joseph W.. Henry and Rees Case, after whom came James Will-
iams. Mr. Cogswell and Shepard O. Raymond successively as part owners.
In 1859 Harvey E. Allen built the "Red Mill." which in 1866 was sold to
the Geneva Manufacturing Company, and for two years became a woolen
mill. It was later refitted for grinding oatmeal. There is still a busy feed
mill near one of these old sites, built substantially of brick. In' or tor Judson
G. Sherman.

Mr. Simmons, in his "Annals," mentioned other manufacturing enter-
prises— among them the Crawford reaper works in 1875. Most of these
began with reasonable hope of success and some of them flourished for a few
years, bringing to the village increase of population and general trade, and
some of that good remains. But the conditions which now for long have
brought the smaller factories throughout the country quite generally to
naught have been felt here. If water power is of yet further use to man as,
no doubt, it is. that at Lake Geneva will not forever flow uselessly, or but
for minor uses, on its tortuous way to the gulf.

Among the earlier business and professional men and mechanics were:

William Alexander ( [801-1885), the first ami for long the only cooper,
came in 1839. He died at the village.

The .Alien brothers, Harvey E., Seymour and William II., wagon-
makers and blacksmiths, came in 1845. Harvey E. died in 1804. Their
relationship to other Aliens is not learned.

Joel Barber, sun of Solon and Hannah, born 1828 in St. Lawrence
county. Xew York, married Julia L. and Carrie M. Marsh, cousins; came in
[848; carpenter, stavemaker, millwright and millowner; twice president of
the village.

John Beamsley I (803-1897), shoemaker and dealer, came in [843. He
married Mary Jane, daughter of Philander K. Van Velzer, July \. 185N.

John Brink (1810-1904), surveyor and earliest claimant of the water-
power section, died at Crystal Lake, Illinois.

John M.. Newton, Seth M. and William II. Capron's names are found

332 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

in earliest real estate records. One or more of them were of the firm of
Capron, Wheeler & Whipple, coming as general dealers in 1839, and soon
afterward building a distillery, which was but one year in operation.

William Casporus, a carpenter, came in 1S37 and was killed the next
year by falling with a broken scaffold while building his house at Main and
Mad i -on streets.

Henry B. Conant ( (825-1903) came in 1846 as a building contractor,
and partner with Cyrus W. Maynard. his brother-indaw, who came a year
earlier. In judgment and skill they were among the foremost in the county.

Dudley W. Cook, wagonmaker, came from Cooperstown about 1837, in
which year his son, the first white boy, was born and died in the village. He
went to California in 1849 and died there.

Jotham W. Curtis, blacksmith, burned Mr. Payne's house at Duck Lake,
about 1839, destroying a just then valuable set of carpenter's tools, axes, etc.
Mr. Payne and his men caught him, forced him into confession and banished
him.

Lewis Curtis ( 1813-1904) was bom in Chenango county; came in 1840
and bought John Dunlap's store. In the same year he married Mary Eliza-
beth (1822-1868), daughter of Hiram Humphrey and Mary (Blodgett)
Foster, lie was the earliest drug dealer at the village, and continued in
general trade for many years, ten of which he was postmaster.

James J. Dewej 1 [8] 1-1898), a native of St. Lawrence county, opened
a bat store in 1845, and soon became Mr. Ferguson's partner. He was post-
master in the Taylor-Fillmore administrations. His first wife was Eliza
Ann Bates (1815-1838), of Cooperstown; his second wife was Selina A.
Merriam I 1 827-1870).

Anthom I)obb-. -hoemaker, came in 1S44. About ten year- later he
was \ illage president.

John Dunlap (died [879) was son of Robert (born 17571. a soldier of
the Revolution, and grandson of John ( 1718-1813), a native of county
Tyrone. Ireland, and immigrant. The younger John was a half brother of
Asenath, wife of Thomas McKaig. In [839 lie began in business at the vil-
lage, but sold to Lewis Curtis.

Cornwell Esmond came about [837 and built his blacksmith shop at
Broad and Geneva streets, now the site of the Episcopal church.

Benjamin E. Gill ( r8i 1 1888), mason and plasterer, came in 1837. He
was an early village president, lie went to California in 1850, and lived to
irn.

Jo-cph Griffin came from Cooperstown in 1842, and was the first judge

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN-. 333

of probate. As he had Charles M. Baker always within call he served very
creditably, and made a comfortable living from office fees, and from the
produce of his farm in section 30 of Lyons.

Lansing Duane Hale (181 8- 1883). son of Samuel Hale and Sarah AbelL
came from Owego in 1843 and was in retail trade for twenty-two years.
His first wife was Rebecca Ellis (1823-1846); second wife, Jane Elizabeth
1 1S301902 ), daughter of Sweet Allen and Jemima Spicer. His brother, Otis
K. Hale 1 1825- 1902), began in trade in 1853. His wife was Ann L., daughter
of John Beeden and Serena Garrison.

Thomas J. Hanna (1809-1900) came in 1845 as a cabinetmaker, and
prospered at his business. Mrs. Hanna was a pioneer in the millinery trade.

John Haskins (1811-1887) with his brother James came in 1842, and
built a sawmill at the lower water power. In 185 5- 1863 they were in the
hardware trade. Thereafter they were active in all the greater local enter-
prises. John's wife was Olivia (Vose), widow of John Seymour. She was
born 1829, died 1876.

Dr. Stephen Ingham ( 1778- 1875) was born at Richmond, Massachu-
setts, and in 1803 married Huldah Ambler (born 1787). He came to Geneva
in 1 84 1. He owned a farm in section 12, Linn.

Dr. Alexander Law sun 1 1S15-1871) was born in Perthshire, Scotland;
was graduated at the University of Glasgow; came to Philadelphia in 1837;
to Geneva in 1849, where he practiced as a botanic physician.

Daniel Locke (1820-1897), son of James and Lydia, was born in
Cheshire county, New Hampshire ; married, first, Clarissa Wright, of Otsego
county; came to Geneva as a gunsmith in 1X43: married Elizabeth Booth,
at Springfield, in 1867.

Russell II. Mallary (or Mallory?), born in 1803 at Middletown, Ver-
mont, came from Beardstown. Illinois, in 1838; became sheriff in 1841 ; went
into business at East Troy with Mr. Oatman in 1843; returned to Geneva and
died in March, 1852. In 1838 Mallary & Oatman brought from Illinois the
first drove of hogs, of a breed, the continuance of which the agricultural
society has never encouraged by offer of premium. These brutes, shifting
for themselves under the oak trees, never became even streakily fat, and
when wanted were hunted and shot like other wild game. Calista E. (1809-
1878), daughter of Eli Oatman and Mary Symonds, was Mr. Mallory's wife.

Philip D. Marshall came from Milwaukee in 1843 and brought with him
the "Ariel," the first of the Geneva lake fleet. It had masts, spars and sails,
but its surest motive power was a pole. It carried twenty or more passengers,
and, having previously crossed Lake Michigan, the trip to Fontana and

334

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Williams Hay did not overtask it. Captain Marshal built and rented a store.
but for himself preferred a shanty, where he sold apples and cider. He was
also a shaver of shingles.

Dr. Ansel D. Merritt came in 1844, but moved about 1852 to Wood-
stock. He died in 1878.

Gurdon Montague MS19-1890), born at Wetherslield. Connecticut,
came from Trenton, New York, by way of .Milwaukee, in 1845. ^e was
known throughout the county as a competent millwright. His wife was
M. Maria Post ( [823-1866).

Bradford T. Paine 1 1819-1903), shoemaker, came in 1843. Of his
workmen George S. Nethercut and Bruce Frederick are ranembered. His
wife was Ellen C. I.oveland I 1S19-1903).

Logan McCoy Ross, blacksmith, in 1843 made his shop in Payne's cabin.
across the race (southeastward).

Richard D. Short in T848 began the first regular business as proprietor
of a livery stable.

Timothy C. Smith and X. S. Donaldson came in 1844 as dealers in dry
good- and groceries.

Simeon W. Spafard ( [812-1880), son of Abraham Spafard (Nathan 5,
Thomas 4. Thomas 3, Samuel _». John 1) and Sarah Williams, came about
[838 and in [842 opened a tinshop and stove store- He married Charlotte L.
Sharpe in 1845, and bis sisters. Elizabeth W. and Alma O.. were wives of
Erasmus I). Richardson. Mr. Simmons also mentions him as a brother-in-
law of William I\. May. In 1854 he was assemblyman, lie died at Omaha.

Samuel II. Stafford 1 [811-1889), a native of Saratoga, son of Henry
and Poll) 1 Cay), came from Kenosha in [848 and with Mr. Dewev engaged
in general trade. In 1N64 be wen! into other business.

Horace Starkcx. carpenter and millwright, came in [839. He bought
a farm in Walworth in 1807 and died there about leu years later.

Philander K. Van Velzer 1 [611-1862)3 -on of William Henry, an earlv
settler of I yons, came in 1837 to the village and for some time made bricks
on hi- lot near the railway anil between Dodge and Wisconsin streets. His
wife was Prudence (1.81.2-18,70), daughter of llendrick Matteson. His
brother, < oraelrus P. 1 [813-1903), also came early. He died at Delavan.

\-aliel P. Ward, carpenter, wa- an earl) -comer. He built the Imu-c
>i 1 ow lied bj Richard I ). Short.

\ndrew Jack-on Weatherwax 1 [817-189S) wa- born in ( Mvans county,
\'ew York : came to Darien in 1N45; to Geneva in 1S40 as the first resident
tailor. In 1S01 he and his son, Monroe J. W'eatherw a\. enlisted 111 the

tli Infantry-Cavalry. His wife was Irene Preston (1820-1900).

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN-. 335

Lucian Wright came in 1836; owned land north of Duck Lake, where
he built a kiln and made lime of the best quality. He moved away a few
years later.

Other men, who had some larger part in building this community, or
of whom more is known, have been or will be mentioned elsewhere.

Charles M. Goodsell came in [838 to build and operate a grist mill, but not
for that only. He at once began to revive the temporarily suspended religious
interest of the little community, organizing a Sunday school and. co-operating
with other good men and women, preparing the way for formation of reli-
gious societies.

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.

Rev. Phipps W. Lake, an early settler of Walworth, organized the Bap-
tist society in 1840 at the home of Charles M. Baker, a Presbyterian, but
not too much narrowed by his creed. Between 1844 and 1847 a church
was built at a cost of fifteen hundred dollars, and was rebuilt in 1868 at fur-
ther cost of seventeen hundred dollars. Though for some years fairly pros-
perous, the society was relatively poorer than at Delavan, Elkhorn and East
Troy. At a business meeting April 5, 1907. it was suggested that it was
better to build a new church than to repair the old one, and the pastor was
asked to call another meeting. Ten days later it was determined, without
dissent, to build, and a committee was directed to canvass for subscriptions.
In two weeks two thousand three hundred dollars had been pledged; but this,
with a legacy of nearly one thousand dollars from Mrs. H. H. Hawks, was
not enough. Appeal to the state convention at last brought five thousand
dollars from the Judson A. Roundy Inquest. The society was encouraged
to new effort and in 1910 a fine new church was built in modern style at a cost
of fifteen thousand dollars, and dedicated January 13, 191 1. In its corner-
stone were deposited, among other things, a carefully prepared historical ac-
count of the society and a list of its pastors. Both of these papers were the
work of Mrs. Amelia (Beardsley) Arnold who, as a child, had known Mr.
Lake well and in her later life most or all of his successors.

Phipps Waldo Lake came in 1840. and for a short time in 1N45; I'eter
Conrad, 1844; Joel W. Fish, December. 1N45. and in 1885; Caleb Blood,
1852; P. H. Parks. 1855; Xoah Barrel!. 1857, and in 1863: Samuel Jones,
1858: Thomas Bright, 1859; Elijah M. Nye, [865; Rodney Gilbert, 1867;
Enoch P. Dye, 1869; John D. Pulis, 1872; James Buchanan, 1874; J. E.
Roberts, 1876; James Edminster, 1 S 7 7 ; Joshua I-'., \mbrose, 18K0; Levi D.
Temple, 1882; William Mekee, [884; Charles li. Lade. [886; John H. Hig-
by, 1888; Robert Gray, 1893; James I'. Whyte, [896; Peter Clark Wright,

„g WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

1897 and 1901 ; !ohn A. Monk, 1900; Emory L. Cole, 1902; James A. Lar-
son, 1904; Rov H. Barrett, 1905; George Gladstone Laughlin, 1908. Elder
Barrell, born in 1794, died in 1875 ; his wife was Ann E. Pierce (1804-1865).
Both were buried at Lake Geneva. Elder Lake ( 1789-1866) and wife, Re-
becca Beardsley (1792-1884), were buried at Walworth.

As early as 1842 Rev. Thomas Morrissey came from Milwaukee period-
ically to minister to Catholic families about Lake Geneva. Vicar-general
Kundig organized the parish of St. Francis de Sales in 1847, and its members
have since built two or three churches. The last is a well-built and well-fur-
nished building, near the east end of Main street, a well-chosen site. It was
built within the period of Father Reilly's pastorate, at a cost of eighteen
thousand dollars. Its fine organ was the gift of Patrick J. Healy, of Chicago.
A suitable rectory, a convenient hall for social and other entertainments and
a cemetery are included in the now valuable church property.

The first resident priest was Patrick McKernan, 1847, after' whom were
P. L Pander, [849; Franz Fusseder, [850; P. J. Mallon, 1854: H. P. Ken-
ney, George H. Brennan, 1856; James Stehle. 1857 and 1862; Henry J.
Roche, 1861: Edward O'Connor, 1863; F. O'Farrell, [867 (died); A. L.
David. [867; James F. Kinsella, [867; Benedict J. Smeddinck, 1868; Eugene
M. McGinnity, 1872: John J. Kinsella, 1873; Nicholas M. Zirnmer, 1874;
Michael Wenker, about 1883; Eugene Reilly, 1884: Bernard Joseph Burke,
1908. Parish records and other sources of information show some disagree-
ments and uncertainties as to initials, order of succession and dates; but the
foregoing list is nearly full and correct. Rev. Martin Kundig, whose early
labors in this as in many another county are memorable, was born in the
Swiss canton of Schwytz, November 19, 1805; came to Cincinnati in [828,
where he was ordained; in [833 to Detroit, whence he came, in 1842, to Mil-
waukee, and in [844 became, under Rt. Rev. John Martin llenni. vicar-gen-
eral of the diocese. He died March 6, 1879.

\ society of Presbyterians and Congregationalists was formed in 1839
and built its church, the first Presbyterian, of oak lumber in 1841 al a cost
of five hundred dollars. A new church, on the same lot, was begun in [851
and finished in two years, at a cost of two thousand five hundred dollars.
Beginning with thirteen members, the society's increase was mostly Congre-
gationalism and in [883 Formallj changed its name to First Congregational
church. The societ) laid the cornerstone of its third church July 24. 1897,
dedii tted tlic finished building January 10. [898. This church property
valued at twenty-five thousand dollars. Pastors: Lemuel Hall, 1839;
I eonard Rogei [841; G R. French, [843; Homer H. Benson. 1844: Ed-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. $37

ward Goddard Miner, 1855 and 1867; Charles Morgan, 1857; William S.
Mather, i860; Peter S. Van Nest, 1861 ; Richard Brockway Bull, 1875;
George Cady, 1893; William Jay Cady, 1893; Cyrus A. Osborne, 1897; John
W. Wilson, 1902 to 1912. Mr. Bull was born in 1820, died 1888; Mr. Hall,
1795-1868; Mr. Van Nest, 1813-1893.

Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper came as early as 1844 to administer com-
munion to a few persons, and from time to time sent mission workers to this
field. In 1850 the Episcopal parish of the Holy Communion was organized,
and in 1857 the society bought the disused Presbyterian church and occupied
it until it could build a chapel on its own ground at Geneva and Broad
streets. In 1880 the cornerstone of a permanent building was laid and in
1883 the new church was consecrated. Its material is glacier-borne boulders
of various granites, hewn to architectural fitness, and its cost, with organ and
other furnishings, was more than twenty thousand dollars. Its resident rec-
tors have been John McNamara, 1850 and 1856; William S. Ludlum, 1852;
Gerrit E. Peters, 1853; William H. Studley, 1854; John H. Gasman, 1859;
William Dafter, 1861 ; George N. James, 1864; John Henry Babcock, 1866;
William C. Armstrong, 1867; Robert B. Wolseley, 1874; Richard Thomas
Kerfoot, 1876; William Wirt Raymond, 1887; Isaac Newton Marks, 1892;
Herbert Chessall Boissier, 1907.

Rev. Carl F. Goldammer organized an Evangelical Lutheran society in
1879 and dedicated its church May 4, 1884. His successors have been:
August'F. Graebner, [885; Ileinrich Gieschen, 1887; Ernst F. Schubert,
Bernhardt Albert Oehlert. 1899; Herman A. Fleischer. 1904. A new church
was built in 1891-2 and the old one then became a parish schoolhouse. These
buildings, with a parsonage, and lots, in Walworth street near Crawford street,
are valued at six thousand dollars. The society now includes about sevent)
families.

Mr. Schubert with twelve families separated from this society in 1899
and built a new church and parsonage at Park Row and Warren street. This
church has basement story fitted for its use as a parish schoolhouse. The
property is valued at five thousand dollars. Mr. Schubert's further stay was
short, and he was followed in the same year by E. A. Kurtz, in 1902, by
Peter Christian Boysen, in [906 by Ernst Junghans In [909 Mr. I'.nvsen
returned and also ministers to the church at Genoa function.

A class of six or seven persons met in 1837 to form a Methodist Epis-
copal society. A church with parsonage was built in 1855-6 on lots at Madi-
son and Wisconsin streets, facing the park, at a cost of two thousand dollars.
(22)

338 WALWORTH COUNTVT, WISCONSIN.

These lots had been set apart for this purpose by the proprietors of the vil-
lage. In the meantime service was held in a primitive school house. The
society began to build again in 1877, at Cook and Geneva streets, also facing
the park. It was finished and dedicated in 1884, and with parsonage its cost
was about thirteen thousand dollars. The names of pastors, as nearly as can
now be shown, were Samuel Pillsbury, 1838; Jesse Halstead, 1839; James
McKean, 1839; David Worthington, 1841 ; -Jewett ar|d Decker, in 1842;
Jonathan M. Snow, 1843; John Crummer, 1845: Joseph C. Parks, 1846;
Joseph M. Walker, 1847; Robert Blackburn, 1848: R. Dudgeon, 1850; Au-
rora Callender, 1851 ; O. F. Comfort, 1852; Aaron Griswold, 1853; Joseph
Anderson, 1855; Hiram H. Hersey. [857; David Hall, 1858: L. Salisbury,
1859; David W. Couch, 1861 : William Averill, 1862; Stephen Smith, 1863;
Rossiter C. Parsons, 1865; Norvall J. Aplin. 1867; Henry Colman. [869
and 1885: Samuel E. Willing, 1873; John D. Cole, 1874; John L. Hewitt,
1875; Albert A. Hoskins. 1876; Thomas Clithero, 1878; Charles E. Gold-
thorp. 1880; Matthew Evans. 1882; Thomas W. North. 1888; John Jay Gar-
vin, 1893; William W. Stevens, 1898; Rodman W. Bosworth, 1899; Thomas
DeWitt Peake, 1900; Sherman P. Young and Webster Millar. 1902; Charles
Marcus Starkweather, 1904; Frank Cuthbert Richardson, 1909.

SCHOOLS.

Mrs. Rebecca A. Vail taught a private school in 1837 at a room over
Mr. Ferguson's store. About the next year a public school house was built,
and Mary S. Brewster for the summer term and Dr. John Stacy for the
winter term were first teachers. In 1849 a larger house was ready, and its
two department teachers were Horatio B. Coe and Charles B. Smith. A
wing was added in 1854. A new house was built in 1867 at a cost of eighteen
thousand dollars, including its furnishings. This was in Wisconsin street,
looking southward upon the park, as designed at the village platting. It was
burned December 25, 1903, and in the next year rebuilt of pressed red brick
and in plain good taste. Mr. Simmons did not note the beginning of the
high school, but it may have been about 1865, practically, if not formally.
In 1895 it was placed temporarily in the seminary building, which the city
had bought. After the lire of 11)03 a separate building was placed beside that
for the grades, of like materials and in like plainly imposing style of archi-
tecture. Sixteen teachers are employed in these schools, the head of which
is called city superintendent. The jurisdiction of this officer, independent of
the count) superintendency, includes two other schools.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. ' 339

As a school district Lake Geneva reaches into the westward sections be-
tween the lakes. That part beyond the corporate limits has for long been
known as the "woods district," though there is now nothing sylvan in the
surroundings or in school management. A brick house was built in 1886,
replacing an old one, on the road to Delavan, in the edge of section 33. Its
present teacher, A. Pierre Deignan, was as a child an early resident of the
city or its vicinity, and has been well tried in this and other public service.
A new house was built in the third ward in 1888, and is under the city
superintendency.

In 1858 O. Sherman Cook opened a select school. Early in 1859 Se-
linda J. Gardner was at its head. She was a daughter of Elijah R. Gardner
and Rebecca Powers, and in 1885, as widow of Dr. H. Hitchcock, of Chicago,
she was married to Rev. Franklin W. Fisk. In autumn Anna Wealthy Moody
came and continued this school until March, 1863. Her quality and success
as a teacher suggested another enterprise, and in 1864 a stock company built
the Lake Geneva Seminary, east of the outlet, at a cost of seven thousand
dollars. This property was sold in 1869 to Mrs. Julia A. Warner, under
whose management the school, which was chartered in 1871, continued for
several years. For boarding non-resident pupils the old Geneva Hotel was
rented for two years, and in 1873 a boarding house, of brick, was built near
the school. The exact year, later than 1885, in which the seminary was
closed is not shown ; but the property was used occasionally thereafter for
select schools. In 1895 it was sold to the city. After its use as a high school
it was condemned as unsafe or unsanitary, and all these buildings were pulled
away. Of the ample ground an attractive lakeside park has been made.

Among Mrs. Warner's assistants are remembered Miss Mary, daughter
of George Allen, of Linn, and Miss Kate Headley, daughter of Rev. Alvah
Lilly, of Whitewater. One of Mr. Cook's enterprises was a normal music
school, in 1879, which for a few years called pupils from other towns and
states.

The principals of the public school, as far as learned, were : Elias ( ?)
Dewey, 1855; Dr. Andrew J. Rodman, 1856; O. Sherman Cook, 1858; Rich-
ard D. Carmichael, 1859; II. \Y. Allen, 1861 ; Horatio B. Coe, [862;
Orville T. Bright, 1863; Osmore R. Smith, 1864; Warren D. Parker, 1867;
W. H. Wynn, 1869; John E. Burton, 1870; J. R. (or D.) Cole, 1873; An-
drew J. Wood, 1874; Walter Allen, 1877; Edward O. Fiske, 1881 ; E. S.
Ray, 1883; Joseph H. Gould, 1884-91; A. F. Bartlett, 1892; John Foster,
1899; Harry W. Snow, 1902; Edmund Decatur Denison, 1007;
Jay Mitchell Beck, 191 1. With city government principals became superin-

340 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

tendents. Mr. Carmichael enlisted early in 1861 in Company F, Fourth In-
fantry, and died at DeSoto Point, Louisiana, opposite Vicksburg, July 8,
1862.

NEWSPAPERS.

In July, 1848, David M. Keeler published the first number of the Wis-
consin Standard, and discontinued it one year later.

Edgar J. Farnum began the Geneva Express in 1854, or earlier; for in
June of that year he with his brother, Alonzo L., began the Independent, at
Elkhorn. Lemuel Franklin Leland (better known as Frank Leland) and
George S. Utter continued the lis press until the spring of 1857, when they, too
passed over to Elkhorn with their little printing equipment. In 1858 Henry
L.Devereaux came to publish the Genevan for eighteen months. In i860
George S. Utter came back and for a year published the Geneva Lake Mirror,
having John T. Wentworth as its editor. About 1871 Mr. Leland divided
his weekly edition, heading it, for his subscribers at and near the lake, Geneva
Independent. To give better color to this device be engaged John E. Burton
as editor of a column or so local to Geneva, which displaced a like space
of Elkhorn gossip. This, of course, was to prevent or delay the appearance
of another real Geneva newspaper; and, of course, it hastened that which
he tried thus to prevent. In April. [872, Air. Utter came back once more
to publish the Lake Geneva Herald. Mr. Burton, then principal of the public
school, Rev. John D. Pulis, of the Baptist church, Rev. Edward G. Miner, of
the Congregational church, were named as editors — but Mr. Burton's asso-
ciates were much like the "side judges'' of the county courts of common pleas
in New York from 1 S_>^ to 1X47. These courts supplied mam men .11
home and in the west with an honorable title, hut the opinions of their Honors
had little influence on the first judges, each of whom was in effect his whole
court. Mr. Burton planned and moved and only he, in that panic period,
could have made the Herald at once and permanently successful at Lake
Geneva. It was as large as any paper in the county, all home-printed and
will printed, and on each page in every week the village, with its current
affairs and its near and distant prospects, were "writ large." The office was
liberally equipped for all the business that was likely to be brought to a vil-
lage printer. Mr. Burton learned his new calling quickly, and in April, 1873,

ne sole owner and editor. Three years later he sold forty-nine one-
hundredths of the establishment to Albert 1). Waterbury, and in 1877 James
Edmund Heg and Mr. Waterbury became equal and only owners. Mr. Heg,
a son of Col. Hans C. Heg, who was killed at Chickamauga, was then recent-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 34 I

ly graduated from Beloit College, and he turned easily to editorship. Mr.
Waterbury retired in 1878 and John E. Nethercut became in 1888 Mr. Heg's
partner, and since 1895 has been the Herald's owner, editor, and printer. This
paper was always Republican and since 1904 has been "stalwart."

Charles H. Burdick and George E. Earley began in 1879 a daily paper,
having its presswork done at Elgin. Within a few weeks Mr. Burdick, as
remaining owner, sold whatever there was to buy to Joseph S. Badger, who
equipped the Lake Geneva Mews as a weekly paper. His brother, Charles E.
Badger, seems to have been associated with him until 1883. These young
men, who were good printers, were sons of Prof. Joseph A. Badger, for some
time principal of Walworth Academy. About 1883 Asa K. Owen replaced
the younger Badger, and in 1885 was left to his own pleasant editorial de-
vices. N. W. Smails in 1895, Walter A. McAfferty in 1899, and the Lake
Geneva Publishing Company since 1905 were the later owners. -One of the
later editors was Frederick Kull, of an old county family. At present Frank
M. Higgins is manager and editor. This paper has always been Republican —
formerly in an independent way and latterly in the way of the progressive
element of the party.

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

A Young Men's Committee, formed in November, 1881, became in
June, 1883, a Young Men's Christian Association, which was incorporated in
1888. In October, 1890, Mrs. George Sturges gave to this body, for two
years, the use of her cottage and ground at the oblique meeting of Main and
Lake streets. In 1893 an<^ :^94 the association acquired lots and buildings in
Main street, and afterward established itself in a brick building of its own at
Main and Cook streets, the upper story of which is a large auditorium.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

Mr. Simmons noted that a public reading room was opened in Walker's
block, Main street, December 31, 1877. Its books were supplied chiefly from
private libraries. In 1889 this first public library was transferred to the care
of the Young Men's Christian Association. These five hundred volumes were
materially increased by liberal gifts of summer residents. In the summer of
1894 Mrs. Mary Delafield Sturges gave her house and ground, previously
tenanted by the association, to the city for its use as a library and park. This
was conditional, but it was only required that the city should buy the rest of

342 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

the little block and should vacate so much of Lake street as lay between the
block and the water's edge. This gift was most willingly accepted and the
conditions were fulfilled at once. The inner arrangement of the house was
so changed as to make it convenient for its purpose, until it may be found
practicable to replace it with a fire-proof building of suitable design. The
public library was opened in the same year with 2,300 volumes in hand, and
it now has nearly 5,000 volumes. The circulation of books in the first year
was about 20,000 volumes, and has not since varied widely. Miss Gertrude
T. Noyes, now and for some years past librarian, is a granddaughter of the
young Ulysses of the Brink-Payne war. Both she and her assistant. Miss
Eugenia C. Gillette, are daughters of soldiers of the Civil war.

BANKS.

Erasmus D. Richardson began his private banking business in 1848, and
until his death, in 1892, his bank was regarded as one of the soundest in the
state. It had weathered the storm-and-stress periods of 1857 and 1873, and
his ability and character were not doubted; but, at settlement of his affairs
the concern was found partially insolvent. The First National Bank of Lake
Geneva opened, with capital of fifty thousand dollars, under the presidency
of Frank Leland with John A. Kennedy as cashier. It is now in business
with Levi A. Nichols as president and Josiah Barfield as cashier. The Farm-
ers National Bank was organized in 1900 with Dwight S. Allen as president
and E. D. Richardson (who is not a relative of the pioneer banker) as cashier.
Its present officers are Albert S. Robinson, president; F. E. Wormood, cash-
ier. Its capital is fifty thousand dollars. These banks are quartered in new
and in every way suitable buildings, and so furnished as to suggest at once
security, convenience and business-like elegance.

W \ I ERWORKS AND ELECTRIC LIGHTS.

James E. Heg, Dr. James C. Reynolds and W. H. Wheeler proposed in
January, 1890, to build ami operate a city system of waterworks and electric
lights. The council gave them a franchise for fifteen years, agreeing to pay
yearly two thousand five hundred dollars for the use of water and seventy-
five dollars yearly for each treel light. Needful buildings, engine, well of

thousand two hundred feet depth, and tower were at once provided and
before the end of the year live miles of pipe had been laid, and later exten-
sions have mel the growing demand. In [894 the company procured a lease

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 343

of the water power. In March, 1896, Herbert E. Haskins supplied the stores
and homes with incandescent lights. A new company was formed in 1897,
taking the place of the old one. It is styled the Equitable Electric Light
Company. Its buildings with machinery are on the site of the Warren grist
mill. At present the officers are Charles S. French, president ; James G.
Allen, secretary and treasurer; John S. Allen, manager. These, with Mary
C. Allen, are directors.

FISHING AND NAVIGATION.

The area, depth and clearness of the Genevan water invited navigators
and fishers. Bass, catfish, ciscoes, perch, pickerel, suckers and other kinds
native to the lake, abounded. Since 1874 millions of young fry — bass, salmon,
trout and other game fish — have been added from the state's hatcheries. This
culture has also engaged the attention and interest of public-spirited Chicago
owners of lakeside estate. In 1858 E. F. Brewster brought from Fox river
the steamer ''Atlanta." of twenty tons. It was sixty-five feet long, twelve
feet abeam, and could carry one hundred and fifty persons. Edward
Ouigley launched the "Lady of the Lake,'' a larger boat, in 1873. A yet
larger steamer, the "Lucius Newberry," home-built, was launched in 1875 and
was burned in 1891 as the "City of Lake Geneva." In 1883 three steamers
were sold and two new ones launched. There were then nineteen steamers
afloat. In 1890 six new ones were added, three of which were home-built.
In 19 10 the assessed value of the lake fleet was nearly forty thousand dollars,
and its true value was placed at seventy-five thousand dollars.

CEMETERIES.

The old burying ground was placed well westward from the village plat,
but in time was overtaken and enclosed by the growth of the city. It lies
between Maxwell and Warren streets, with Dodge street southward, and falls
a few rods short of Park Row. It is kept in order, as is most becoming; for
on its shafts and headstones may be read names often mentioned in these
pages, inseparable from local history. It was in its day creditable to the taste
and feeling of Genevans. It had become evident in 1880 that more room was
needed. A new place was chosen, in its area forty acres, on a high knoll north
the city. It i> supplied with water from a deep well on the ground and
from the city waterworks. Lake Geneva cemetery overlooks the city, part
of the lake, and miles of surrounding country. In planning it and in caring
for it nothing that should have been done has been left undone.

344 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

THE LAKE SHORE.

Since the city itself stretches along the greater part of that shore line
which is of the town of Geneva most of the owners of lake front property,
on each side, are of the town of Linn and those at the upper end of the lake
are of Walworth. The city is their principal port of entry, so to say, though
Williams Bay and Fontana are also reached by rail from Chicago. Dr. Philip
Maxwell, then in service as an army surgeon, had invested as early as 1836 in
the claim at the mill section, and soon afterward entered land in sections 15,
26, 27 of Walworth. Leaving the army in 1842, he settled into professional
practice at Chicago, and in 1853 became state treasurer of Illinois. In 1856
he built a large house on his lakeside property at Geneva and brought his
family there as summer residents. This was held at Springfield to disqualify
him as an officer of Illinois, whereupon he became a resident of Geneva until
his death in 1859. It is told that he advised a son-in-law to acquire all the
shore land that could then be secured, assuring him that great profit would
arise therefrom and that, too, in time not long to come. This wise counsel
was not followed, though much of the land might have been bought at twen-
ty-five dollars an acre.

Gurdon Montague sold in 1870 ninety acres lying in section 35, having
a front on the lake near its bay-like end, to Shelton Sturges. of Chicago,
who in the next year built a large house or villa on the wooded slope outside
of the village plat, but in full view from the eastern side of the bay. Julian S.
Rumsey, an ex-mayor of Chicago, built at the eastern end in 1872. These
three examples were well followed and both shores are lined with summer
retreats built for permanence, much more substantially than bungalows, their
grounds improved without needless violence to nature. As seen from mid-
lake the view on either hand is not marred, but its native charm is heightened;
for the least possible has been taken away and much has been added with
taste and judgment. Most of these dwellers by the waterside, perhaps, own
one or more vessels of the lake fleel : and their influence on road-making and
other public improvement has been more or less salutary. The building, im-
proving and service of their houses and grounds employ many local artisans
and laborers, and so contribute to the city's general prosperity. In effect,
these owners, of whom many have been or are of the wealthiest and best
known of Chicago, have made these shores as truly suburban of their city
a- a- insti hi ami Rogers Park.

A p" \ as established in 1K37. its one weekly mail brought from

Racine by way of Franklin (Spring Prairie). Solomon Harvey, of the lat-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 345

ter village, carried the mail in his hat and coat pockets, and often rode his
horse into Geneva with a bag of grain behind him for grinding at Goodsell's
mill. A stage route from Kenosha to Beloit, in 1840, increased the useful-
ness of the postoffice. It is now an office of the second class, and has a city-
carrier system and four rural free delivery routes. Postmasters : Andrew
Ferguson, 1837; James J. Dewey, 1849; Timothy C. Smith, 1853; Lewis
Curtis, 1861; Charles E. Buell, 1871 ; Charles A. Noyes, 1879; William
Brown, 1886: George S. Read, 1890: William J. Cutteridge, 1894; Charles
S. French, 1898; Frank S. Moore, 1906; Henry H. White, 1910. Buell and
Noyes had been soldiers of the Civil war.

Much must be left untold or scarce half-told of this city by the lake.
But this matters little, for there are men and women there who, like Mr.
Simmons, can write in prose or verse and who, like him, might say that
they were a part of that of which they write. The recollections of one per-
son or one person's gathering of many recollections must still leave the story
incomplete. Nor need the past be recalled in all its minor though locally in-
teresting details. Cities are not Aladdin-built, by rubbing rings or lamps.
One who now sees broad, dustless streets, shaded by day and lighted by
night, with all needful evidence besides of past and present intelligence, enter-
prise, and high hopefulness, and who meets men and women who know how
to enjoy the present and to make better the time near at hand, needs not
the minuter record of uneven and often difficult steps by which they have
reached the prosperity and bright prospects of 1912. Lake Geneva has many
as yet unsatisfied wants, but contentment with the present is not the most
conspicuous of American virtues.

VILLAGE AND CITY CHARTERS.

The village of Geneva was chartered in 1844. At its first election Charles
M. Goodsell became president, and with him was a board of trustees, a ma-
jority of whom were temperance men. This they proved by an ordinance
which forbade the sale or gift of liquor after July 2d. Thomas D. Warren
was convicted and fined for having sold the evil prohibited, over the Lake
House bar, on the nation's birthday. He appealed to the territorial district
court, but a change of statute overtook the slow course of the law and at
last the proceeding was dropped; but, as it may be guessed, without loss to
learned counsel. The next legislative session took from the trustees and
gave to the town supervisors the power of granting or withholding licenses,
and Geneva was not again tormented by thirst. For eleven years the village

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

record, if ever regularly made, was lost. Of early presidents Mr. Simmons
remembered only R. Wells Warren, Benjamin E. Gill and Anthony Dobbs.

A new charter was given March 28, 1856, to an enlarged village' of
Geneva, and this was amended in 1867. In 1879 the citizens voted to set
aside their special charter and to incorporate under a general statute for
government of villages. About fifty miles southward is Geneva, Kane coun-
ty, Illinois, and mail was often missent to each of these namesake villages.
To relieve the Wisconsin village from this long endured annoyance its name
was changed in 1882 to Lake Geneva. An act of the Legislature of 1885
enabled the citizens to accept a city charter at an election held March 31,
1886. In 1897 Lake Geneva became a statutory city of the fourth class.

PRESIDENTS OF THE VILLAGE.

Erasmus Darwin Richardson 1856

'70-1, 77
Harrison Rich to fill vacancy.

Dr. Alexander S. Palmer 1857-8

James J. Dewey 1859

Shepard O. Raymond 1860-1

Moses Seymour 1862

Joel Barber 1863, '68

Jonathan H. Ford 1864

Edward Quigley 1865

Ethan Lamphere Gilbert 1866

Joel C. Walter 1867

Timothy Clark Smith 1869

Samuel Henry Stafford 1872, '79

Dr. Benoni O. Reynolds 1874-6,

'80-2

Dr. George E. Catlin 1878

Maurice A. Miner 1883-4

Charles Edwin Buell 1885

VILLAGE CLERKS.

Jonathan T. Abell 1856-66

John A. Smith 1867-8

Erasmus D. Richardson 1869

Stephen Bemis Van Buskirk 1870

1 harles Edwin Buell 1871

ll'iman E. Allen 1872

John E. Burton 1873

Maurice A. Miner 1874, '76-9

["nomas Henry Ferguson 1875

Charles S. French__ 1880-4

Charles Herbert Burdick 1885

VILLAGE TREASURERS.

Thpmas Baker Gray (probably) .1856

Willi. mi Jewett 1857

\\ illiam L, Valentine 1858-61

M Barber 1862-3

Schuyler S. 1 lanna 1864, '66

William 11. Lee 1865, '69

Sylvester Curtis Sanford__i867, '71
William Alexander 1868

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

347

George W. Sturges 1870, '74-8 Charles Edwin Buell 1880-3

John Burton J872-3 Robert Bruce Arnold 1884-5

William H. Hammersley 1879

MAYORS OF LAKE GENEVA.

John Bell Simmons 1886

Charles S. French 1888

William H. Seymour 1892

Wesley Xewton Johnson 1894

Alexander T. Seymour 1895

Frank S. Moore 1898

Edward F. Dunn 1901

Ebenezer Davidson 1902

Horace Greeley Douglass 1908

Frank Augesty 1912

CITY CLERKS.

Charles Herbert Burdick 1886

Charles C. Kestol 1887-8

Charles F. Case 1889-91

William H. Hammersley 1892

Louis B. Warren 1893-4

Benjamin O. Sturges 1895

Charles H. Gardner 1896-1904

Arthur G. Bullock 1905-12

CITY TREASURERS.

Thomas Baker Gray, elected 1886

William L. Valentine 1887-8

Ephraim E. Sanford 1889-90

Ethan L. Gilbert 1891

Reinhold Briegel 1892-3, 1901-3

George P. Wheeler 1894-5

Emery A. Buell 1896-7

Walter A. McAfferty 1898-9

Charles Lawrie 1900

William W. Ross 1904

Andrew E. Williams 1905

Lloyd D. Sampson 1906, 1910

Theron Dallas Stroupe 1908

Andrew Williams 1912

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE FOR VILLAGE AND CITY.

Warren Beckwith 1886-91

William F. Best 1910-11

Lewis G. Brown 1901

Francis A. Buckbee 1881-96,

1902-5

Hugh A. Burdick 1900-1

Samuel S. Case 1881-2

Bezaleel W. Farnum 1865

Arthur M. Kaye 1904-9

James Leonard 1908-11

Cyril Leach Oatman 186 1-2,

'66-9, '72-3

Richard D. Short 1892-7, 1902-3

James Simmons 1873-4

John A. Smith 1867-9

Theron Dallas Stroupe 1905-7

Thomas F. Tolman 1885

Franklin J. Tyrrell 1910

348 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

John Theodore Wentworth Julius L. Wind 1900-1

1863-4, '70-1

It is not unlikely that Abell and Oatman, with, perhaps, a few more
justices named in the town list, were, in fact, chosen for the village, though
the record at the circuit clerk's office does not make it appear so.

POPULATION AND VALUATION.

The village population in 1870 was 998. In 1880 it was 1,969. The
city population in 1890 was 2,297. In ^ 1900 it was 2,585. By wards in
1910: First ward, 948; second ward, 775; third ward, 1,356; total for

city, 3,079.

Valuation of real estate in 1910 was $3,553,000; of personal property,
$752,000. (Nineteen automobiles were returned for the city in 1910, but
their number now owned here and about the county has so increased as to
make such statistic already worthless.)

CHAPTER XXVIII.

TOWN OF LAFAYETTE.

This town, at first included in Spring Prairie, was set off March 21,
1843. It is town 3 north, range 17 east, less section 31, set off in 1846
to form the town of Elkhorn. Beginning on its north line, and following the
direction of the sun, it is bounded by Troy, Spring Prairie, Geneva and
Elkhorn, and Elkhorn and Sugar Creek. Its surface varies between 855
and 1,015 feet above sea-level — the lowest point a creek valley in section
8, its highest near Elkhorn, near section 31. Sugar creek crosses from
west to east a little north of the middle line of the town, and affords a
small amount of mill power, but its several branches are inconsiderable in
volume. In the earlier years it was well wooded with the several varieties
of oak, and at points along the creek with sugar maples from which the
Indian occupants of the/ county hunting ground derived a noteworthy supply
of crudely made sugar. A few fine oak groves remain, and these are in
themselves more than merely fair to look upon. Taking them with the
green levels and the gently rolling fields, in the larger prospects, they make
the town well worth a summer-day drive through it, in any direction, to
see in what kindly mood was Nature when she formed Lafayette. Nature,
however, did not work by town, county, or state lines ; and this town is
but a small segment of the Eden-like Mississippi valley. The older forests
were cut away to build cabins and fences and for the fuel of town and
neighboring village. When the railway was built across the town its de-
mands for ties, timber, and fuel quickened the previously slower spoliation
to the pace of a forest fire. But the town is far from treeless, thanks to the
valuable and carefully conserved later growth.

The town is underlaid, as supposed by geologists, with Niagara lime-
stone for most of its area, and along its western border with Cincinnati
shale. A few borings have reached rock at 800 to 840 feet above sea-
level, which may indicate that the glacial drift is from 55 to 175 feet deep.
The land area is 22,198 acres. The total value, 19 10, was $1,650,300. The
crop acreage was: Barley, 1,188; corn, 3,927; hayfield, 3,124; oats, 2,532;
orchard, 98; potatoes, 99; rye, 150; timber, 1,859; wheat, 102. The as-
sessed valuation of all property was 3.66 per cent of that of all property

jgO WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

in the county. The population at each federal census was: 1850, 1,048;
i860, 1,122; 1870, 1,032; 1880, 1,028; 1890, 933; 1900, 924:0910, 894.

Neighboring villages and especially Elkhorn account for a small part
of this loss of population. Elderly farmers retire from active life and
find rest in the village.

Before the establishment of rural free delivery there was a postoffice
at Bowers near the junction of two highways from Spring Prairie to Elkhorn,
east side of section 26. In earlier times this office was a few rods distant
and was named Grove. There was also an office at Fayetteville (which
railway men persistently call "Peck's Station"). The town is now supplied
with its mail mostly from Elkhorn.

Isaiah Hamblin and family led the immigration to Lafayette in June,
1836. He settled on section 25, and built his cabin immediately. He
alsi 1, .bought land in section 13. Within the year Solomon A. Dwinnell,
Elias Hicks, Alpheus Johnson, Charles Chauncey Perrin and Isaac Vant fol-
lowed. Messrs. Dwinnell and Hamblin passed the cold winter of 1836-7
in their new quarters. In the next three years came Nathaniel Bell, William
Bohall, Alexander H. Bunnell, Morris Cain, Harvey M<. Curtiss, George W.
Dwinnell, David S. Elting, Thomas Emerson, Daniel. McDonough and
Samuel Harkness, Riley Harrington, Daniel Hartwell, Charles Heath, Mason
\. I licks. Henry Johnson,, Dr. Jesse C. Mills, Anthony Xoblet, Emery
Singletery, Duer Y. Smith, Sylvester G. Smith. Daniel Kingsley Stearns,
David Tower Vaughn, John Wadsworth. Stephen Gano West and Jesse
Pike West, his son.

Others who entered land at the Milwaukee office were William Allen,
George Franklin Babcock, Asahel Bailey, Rufus Barnes, James Alexander
Bell, Watson Beman, Levi Blossom, Jr.. Franklin Ephraim Booth, Joseph
Bowman, Gershom P. Breed, Edmund Baldwin Cherevoy, Azariah Clapp,
Curtis Clark, James Coleman, James Craig, Sprowell Dean, Reuben M.
Doty, Julius Edwards, Isaac Fuller, William Nicholas Gardner, Clement
Hare, Thomas Harrison, George Hicks, Ethan A. Hitchcock, William
Hodges, Samuel M. and Willard K. Johnson, Sylvanus Langdon, Ambrose
Brown Lockwood, Alexander. Duncan and Murdock Matheson, Peter Nob-
let, George and Charles Paine Osborn, Jared Patrick, Jr., Uriah Payne, Peter
Perry, Robert K. Potter, James Ouiggle, Israel Scott, George and Dewitt
C. Sheldon, Xephaniah Short, five Smiths, named Elbert Herring, Ezekiel
Rrown, Henry, Horace, and Martin, Ebenezer Soule, Lorenzo Stewart, Abel
B. and Elijah B. Terrill, John Trumbull, Charles Wales, Eleazar Wheelock,
Joseph D. Whiteley, William Montague Whitney, George Whitton, Absalom

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 35 1

Williams, Jr., Alexander Wilson, Christopher Wiswell, John Wood, Simon
J. Woodbury, Calvin H., George W., and Robert Wylie, George Young.

The census of 1842 shows a few once well known names as: William
Baumis, Zebulon Bugbee, Israel Hamblin, Jacob Harkness, Solomon Lewis,
Henry Noblet. Theodorus Bailey Northrop, Thomas Pollock, Sherman Mor-
gan Rockwood, Henry H. Sterling, Charles H. Thompson, ancL others who
may have been of either part of old Spring Prairie.

Amasa Allen (1776-1845) and his son Lester (1810-1884) were long
residents in the town. Lester died at Elkhorn.

Truman B. Bartlett (1815-1907) came from Vermont in 1844, with
wife Serena Strong (1823-1890) and settled in Spring Prairie. About 1856
he bought his farm in section 6, Lafayette.

Major Nathaniel Bell (1800-1868) was sheriff from 1845 to 1849.
He came in 1837 with his wife Sarah L. (1809-1847) and bought in sections
12, 25, 36.

Robert Bentley (1800-1854) and wife Maria Burse (1809-1868) came
to section 5, in 1847.

Joseph H. Bishop (1801-1882), son of Levi Bishop and Nancy Hunt,
lived in section 10. His wife was Clarissa R. Balsley.

Alexander Hervey Bunnell (1813-1889), son of Salmon Bunnell and
Lois Leete, of Broome county, New York, came to section 20 in 1837. He
married, first, Mary Dyer in 1839. She died in 1847 and he married in
1848 Harriet N. Dyer (1825-1883). These were daughters of Capt. Charles
Dyer and Mary Galusha, and sisters of Dr. Edward G. Dyer.

Harvey Morse Curtiss (1817-1890), son of Harvey Curtiss and Melinda
Morse, bought in sections 14, 23, in 1840. He married twice: Calcina A.
Smith (1831-1852) and Eliza Almira Smith (1825-1899). They were
daughters of John and Caroline Smith. Mr. Curtiss was one of the best
men in his town.

Julius Derthick (1795-1863) and wife Esther Monroe v( 1790-1879),
daughter of George Monroe and Miss Bennett, came from Portage county,
Ohio, in 1854 to section 25. Their sonsjohn H. and Walter G. are named in
the official lists of the county.

Isaiah Hamblin (1790-1857) was son of Barnabas and wife Daphne,
daughter of William Haynes. (His other ancestors: Sylvanus,4 Elkanah,8
James2 1). He was born in Massachusetts and died in California. His
wife died in Iowa in 1847, before which time he had left his home here to
rejoin the Mormons, beyond the river.

352

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Albert Dyer Harris (1820-1891), son of Dyer Harris and Temperance
Watrous, had earlier ancestors: Ephraim,4 3 Asa,2 James.1 He was born
in Connecticut, married in 1845 Maria, daughter of William Bell and Harriet
Owen, and came in that year to section 36.

Thomas Harrison (1793-1872) had wife Clementina M. (1811-1845).
His land was in section 26.

Anson Hendrix (1793- 1849) and wife Cynthia Niles (1799-1871) left
a son Wellington (1821-1889), whose wife was Abigail Briggs (1822-1895),
and who was long a man of various public usefulness.

Elias Hicks (1800-1885), son of Nathaniel, of Bristol county, Massa-
chusetts, married Eliza Witherspoon in 1822, and came in 1837 to Lafayette.
His second wife was named Amanda. He died at Elkhorn. There have been
several namesake families in the country, some of whom came from Nova
Scotia.

Murdock (1810-1886) and Roderick McKenzie (1825-1898) came
from Scotland in 1842 and in 1846 to northern Lafayette. Murdock married
Jane Lamont (1827-1857); Roderick married Susan, daughter of Thomas
and Susan Pollock. Their sister Barbara was wife of Alexander Matheson.

Winthrop Norton (1800-1863) married Hannah Cranston (1800-1879)
and in 1842 came from Ohio to section 25. Their sons, Abraham C, John
II. and William C, and daughter, Zilpha M. (Mrs. John C. Keyes), were
long active and helpful members of their community. Mr. Norton died in
California.

Uriah Payne, son of the pioneer at Geneva Lake, came about 1842
from Duck Lake, and bought in section 15, but left no distinct mark in the
town history.

Thomas Pollock (1808-1882) and wife Susan Manderson came from
Scotland. They settled near their son-in-law, Roderick McKenzie.

Zephaniah Short (1815 [896) was born in Otsego county; in 1835
married Sally Cockett (1815-1893) ; came to Lafayette, section 27. In their
later years they lived at Elkhorn. Their son George died in service as a
soldier of the, Twenty-eighth Infantry in 1863.

nory Singletery (1798-1891) was born at Sutton, Massachusetts. He
may have been a near relative of Solomon A. Dwinnell, whose mother was
Hannah Singletery. He married, first, Lois Pierce; second, Catharine
Smith (1800-1875). He lived in section 22.

Ezckiel Brown Smith (1809-1882), son of Willard Smith and Amy,
(laughter of Palmer Gardner and Hannah, daughter of Joseph and Mary
Xichols — therefore an aunt of the first-comer to Spring Prairie. Her father-

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 353

line was George.1 Nicholas, 2 3 Sylvester,4 Palmer."' Amy". The other Gardner
line was George.' Nicholas,2 3 Sylvester,4 Palmer,5 Sylvester," Palmer,7 of
Spring Prairie. In 1840 Mr. Smith married Sophronia (1812-1885),
daughter of Amasa Allen, at Ellisburg, New York, and came in 1843 to
section 12.

Sylvester Gardner Smith (1796-1878) was a brother of Ezekiel B.
Smith, and was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts. He came to sections
11. 12. His first wife was Diana Ward, whose son, Capt. Lindsey J. Smith,
of Troy, was serviceable in war and in peace. His second wife was Mrs.
Charity Pierce.

Daniel Kingsley Stearns was son of Theodore Stearns and Charlotte
Root. He died between 1857 and i860, at his farm in section 21. His
wife, Elizabeth Kellogg, was thus descended in father line: Nicholas,1
Thomas.2 Philip." Martin,4 Joseph,3 Nathaniel,6 7 Moses,8 Whiting.9 Her
mother was Elizabeth ( 1750-1832), daughter of Aaron and Mary Cross.

Isaac Yant (1806-1861) and wife Ann (1809-1888) came to section 12.

David Tower Vaughn (1810-1888), son of Samuel Vaughn and Ruth
Bowker, was born in Vermont; married Rebecca Dinsmore (1813-1876);
came in 1838 to Spring Prairie, bought in section 13 of Lafayette in 1840,
to which he added land in section 18, Spring Prairie, until he owned more
than five hundred acres. His brother. Samuel Cole Vaughn, and brother-
in-law. Isaiah Dike, came also to Spring Prairie in 1837.

Joseph D. Whiteley (born 1799) and wife Mary Jane (1806-1889)
went within a few years (before i860) to Walworth.

George Whitton (or Whiton?) married Jane Hare. He died in 185 1
and ten years later she died.

Absalom Williams (1818-1892), son of Absalom Williams and Fanny
Root, married Melissa Tiffany in 1840. Tn 1844 he came to section 34.
He had sons Emory, Collins M., Frank, George, and Arnold D. From
1853 to 1886 he lived in Spring Prairie, and died at Elkhorn. His wife
(1820-1890) died at Lyons.

Alexander Wilson (1802-1873), section 28. married Abigail (1801-
[887), daughter of George and Abigail Bishop. They came to the town in
1842.

Christopher Wiswell (1811-1883), son of Capt. Henry Wiswell and
Elizabeth Salter, was born at Dalton, Massachusetts, and came from Chen-
ango county in 1N40. first buying in section 5. He married Almira (1817-
[883), daughter of Stephen G. West and Rebecca Pike.
' (23) '

354

\\ ALW0RTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

The Elkhorn and Eagle branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
railway crosses sections 4, 5. 8, 18, 19, 31, and has a station in section 8,
named by the company for Jedediah W. Peck.

There are seven school districts in the town, of which district 2 is joint
with Troy, district 4 with Sugar Creek, district 7 with Spring Prairie (the
Bowers schoolhouse). and district 9 with Sugar Creek and Troy.

There is a church in section 10, at the Bishop farm, its service usually
supplied from the Congregational church at East Troy, and near it is a well-
kept burial ground, laid out in 1848. There are also graves at "Westville."'
in section 6, and at the Seymour farm in section 18, laid out in 1844.

CHAIRMEN OF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.

Dr. Jesse Carr Mills 1843

Nathaniel Bell 1844-6, '50-1

Christopher Wiswell 1847, '60-3

Harvey Morse Curtiss-1848, '74> '83

Ralph Patrick 1849

John Bell 1852-3

James Harkness I854"5

Robert Thompson Seymour

[856-7, '66-8

Reuben B. Burroughs 1858-9

Ezekiel Brown Smith 1864-5

Stephen R. Edgerton 1869, '7^

Jedediah William Peck 1870

Calvin II. Wylie 1871-2, '78

Abraham Cranston Norton. -187^.
•84, '87

Joseph Potter 1876, '82

jay P. Wylie 1877

Virgil Cobb 1879-80

Theodorus Northrop 18S1

Delos Harrington 1888, '91

Jay Foster 1889. '90. '1)4

James E. Lauderdale 1892

Bennet F. Ludtke J893, '97

Milo Bingham Ranney 1805-6. '98

George L. Harrington 1899-1901

Charles E. Knapp 1902-6

Frederick Milton Dike 1907-9

William Harmon 1910-12

ASSOCIATE SUPERVISORS.

I. out Mien 1835

Anthony Belk 1905

George Bentley 1879-80

Erwin V III Igood igoy

Uberl Brown 1882, 1902-3

James Child [859, '71-2

Oscai I' I oats T907-9

William II Conger r852-3

George Costello 1911

Harvey Morse Curtiss 1846-7.

'50. '8]

Harvey Ward Curtiss 1891

John Henry Derthick 1873

Julius Derthick i860

Walter George Derthick 1866-7

Frederick Milton Dike 1900-6

WA1. WORTH COUNTY. WISCONSIN.

.1 3 3

Brewster B. Drake 1866, ~jj. '78

Charles E. Ellsworth 1904

William Pierce Ellsworth 1869

George W. Fairchild 1885

Jay Foster 1887-8

Solomon H. Foster 1876

Everett A. Greene 1909, '12

Porter Greene 1856

James Harkness 1910-11

Rut us Dudley Harriman 1874

Albert Dyer Harris 1851

James V. Hempstead 1854

Wellington Hendrix 1863-4, '68

Peter Hinman 1844-5, "47"S

Henry A. Hubbard 1867-8, '80

Hiram Humphrey 1845, 49

Charles E. Ketchpaw 1883

John C. Keyes 1871-2

James E. Lauderdale 1895-6

Louis E. Lauderdale 1912

Bennet F. Ludtke 1891

Donald F. Matheson 1908

Oscar D. Merrick 1889

Nathan W. Mower 1870

Anthony Xoblet 1879

Abraham Cranston Norton 1869

Ralph Patrick 1846, '48

Jedediah William Peck 1865

Frederick Peglow 1899

Alonzo Potter 1870

Geo. Eugene Potter 1890, '92-4, '97

Joseph Potter T859, '75, '77

Patrick Powers 1893-4

Milo B. Ranney 1898

Henry Rieck 1898

Sherman Morgan Rockwood 1843

Charles F. Rohde 1884-6, '92, '97

Sylvester C. Sanford 1861

Robert Thompson Seymour 1873

Ezekiel Brown Smith 1857,

'60-2, '74

Henry Harrison Sterling 1862

August Voss 1881-3, '87

John Wadsworth 1850

William Webb 1884. '86

Nelson West 1865

Stephen Gano West 1851-2, '54

William Montague Whitney. _ 1863-4

Absalom Williams 1853

Alexander Wilson 1843-4

Frederick Winter 1877-8,

'88-90, '95-6

Christopher W'iswell 1856, [858

Frederick Clayton Wiswell-1899-1901

William J. Wood-' 1906

Calvin H. Wylie 1849, 'S7"8

John Perry Wylie 1876

TOWN CLERKS.

Reuben B. Burroughs 1843

Charles Seeley 1844-6

Alva H. Thompson 1847

George G. Sewell 1848-50

Harvey Morse Curtiss 1851-2

Wellington Hendrix 1853

George Washington Wylie. 1854-1860

( alvin H. Wiley— 1861, '65-6, '70, '82

Stephen R. Edgerton 1862-4

Wallace W. Hartwell 1867-9

Xiles Anson Hendrix 1871-3

Milo Bingham Ranney. .!_ 1 874-

80, '83-8
Harvey A. Greene 1881

356

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Leonard Cobb- _ 1889-96, '98, 1901-9 Joseph Robert Potter 1899-1900

George P. Peck 1897, 1910-12

TREASURERS.

Solomon Ashley Dwinnell 1843

Joseph Whitmore 1844

Svlvester Gardner Smith 1845-8

Alexander Hervey Bunnell 1849

Christopher Wiswell 1850

Jedediah William Peck 185 1

Peter Ilinman 1852

X. Howard Briggs 1853

Jacob Wright 1854

William .Montague Whitney-- 1855-6

Reuben I!. Burroughs 1857

William Pierce Ellsworth 1858

Robert S. Hendrix 1859

Stephen Williams i860

George Wright 1861-5, '74-6

Charles W. Concklin 1866

Albert E. Oviatt 1867

Niles Anson Hendrix 1868

Robert B. Webb 1869

Sanford Doane 1870-3

Theodoras Northrop 1877-80

Ezekiel Brown Smith 1881

William H. McArthur 1882-4

William H. Coombe 1885, '91-3

Leonard Cobb 1886-7

Julius M. Ellsworth—. 1888-90,
'98-1907

Clayton E. Mower 1894

Charles E. Ellsworth 1895-6

Frank Harmon l%97

Erwin A. Bloodgood 1908-9

Robert J. Ludtke 1910-12

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

Nelson Catlin 1862-3, '65-6

Robert Cheney 1899-1900

James Child 59-60, '62-5,

"68-74, '75-90- '94-9

Oscar P. Coats 1901-2, '06-7

Waller George Derthick__i879, '86-7.

Frederick Milton Dike 1908-9

Stephen R. Fdgcrtoii 1867-74

Richard Baker Mack 1859-62

lay Foster 1887-95

Levi Hare 1872-3

George L. Harrington 1898

Wellington Hendrix 1863-74

Mark Hunt

Willam L. Lane

William II. McArthur.

Clayton P.. Mower

( 'harle- Isaac Peck

Milo B. Ranney

Oscar B. Rogers 1

Henry Schroeder

John Schubert

Ezekiel Brown Smith

Jesse Pike West

Alexander Wilson

Calvin II. W'vlie 1

■ 1805-6
.1866-7
.1880-3
-.1890
.1891-2
.1893-4
879-80
1S8J-7

1 So,, -1
1877-9
..1865
1860-I
885-90

CHAPTER XXIX.

TOWN OF LAGRANGE.

Town 4 north of range 16 east was set off March 21, 1843, from the
town of Elkhorn and named for an estate or country-seat of the hereof three
revolutions, Marquis de Lafayette. It lies next southward from Palmyra,
in Jefferson county; and the city of that name has trade relations and some
personal interests with part of the town on this side of the line. Lagrange
is generally about nine hundred fifty-five feet above sea-level. It is within
the lower loop of the great Kettle moraine, and its numerous pot-like de-
pressions are characteristic of that great glacial deposit. Some of these are
(or have been) miniature lakes. The group of lakes named Lauderdale,
from owners of adjacent land, is in the southeastern corner, section 36,
and from it Honey creek takes its course across the Troy and Spring Prairie
to Fox river. A branch of the Scuppernong flows northward, from section
18, and through sections 7 and 6.

•. The land is generally as fertile as any in the county, and Heart prairie,
in the southwestern quarter, was long regarded as especially so. The
farmers of the town have l>een as far-seeing and prosperous as elsewhere
within county limits. Stock-raising received early attention and effort, and
men of Heart prairie made their corner of the town widely famous for its
improved breed of hogs. For a few years each side of 1880 a few tons
of tobacco were raised, but that crop has since disappeared from the yearly
reports. Heart prairie lies about 965 feet, and the opposite corner of the
town about 943 feet above sea-level. Trenton limestone is found at 720
to 870 feet above the sea.

James Holden made the first lawful claim to land within the town,
a square-mile on Heart prairie, early in 1837. He was soon followed,
within the year, by Amasa Bigelow, James Burt, Gabriel Cornish and sons,
Edwin DeWolf, George Esterly, Volney A. McCraken, True Rand and
Benjamin Swett. 1838 brought Stephen B. Davis, Orison G. Ewing,
Ephraim C. Harlow, William McDougald, Thomas Waterman, John Weld,
Elijah Worthington (with father and brother). Robert G. Esterly and
Marshall Newell came in 1839. Among men of 1840 were Charles P. Ellis,

Jj8 WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

James W. Field, Stephen C. Goff, Oliver P. Gunnison, Caleb and Levi
Harris, Enos J. Hazard, Ezekiel Lewis. In 1841 Benjamin F. Fox, John
King, William Lyon, Caleb and Robert K. Morris, John Norcross, Moses
Rand, Samuel Robinson, James H. Sanford. Other early arrivals were
those of Horace and Nathan Adams, John H. Cooper, Hiram Cross, David
S. Elting, Benjamin Fowler, James Lauderdale, John Olds, Isaac C. Phelps.

Entries at the land office, were made by Henry Adkins, Sewell Andrews,
Thomas Astin, William Benjamin Astin. Hugh Barker, Samuel Barr,
Harvey Birchard, Thomas Bray, William Bromley, Walter Clayton, James
Coats, James George Conklin. Richard Day, Julius Edwards, Walter P.
Flanders, Jesse Halsted, John C. Harlow, John Harrison, Charles Heath,
Silas and William Houghton, Herman Jenkins, Lars Johnson, Caleb and
George W. Kendall, Samuel Kershaw, Edmund King, Jacob R. Kling,
Sjur Knudson, Julius H. Lauderdale, Harvey Andrew Lawton, Hugh and
Patrick Lee, Henry C. Leffingwell, George Leland, Ralph Lockwood,
William Lumb, Alexander McDonald, Isaac Magoon, Patrick Mahan,
Edward Malcomb, Corrall Higley Mills, Delos Storms Mfills, Forest W.
.Mills, Richard,. L. Morris, Noyes Darling Niblack, John B. and George W.
Norcross, Benjamin, Halver, Matthias and Oliver Oleson, John Padley, Ole
Peterson, Isaac Severance, Sidney F. Shepard. Isaac I. Sherwood, George
and Maxwell Smith, Peter Spur. James and James P. Stewart, Nelson Z.
Strong, Joshua Taylor, Homer Ward, Francis B. Webster. Iver Wickinson,
John Wilson.

Horace Adams (1801-1863) had first wife Sarah R. (1S02-1849),
second wife Fanny Emerson (born 181 1). He died at Racine.

Nathan Adams (1778-1850) had wife Rachel. (His headstone gives
dates 1 781-1855 — not a solitary instance of difference between stone-cutter
an<! other record-makers.)

Thomas Astin (1822-1907) had wife Elizabeth (1823-1898). He
bought in section 9.

Amasa Bigelow came from Nova Scotia. His first wife was named
Welch. Second wife, Ann, died in 1906.

James Burt's son, born in 1838, was the first native resident of the
town.

Gabriel Cornish (1772-1853) and wife Eliza (1873-1837) came with
sons Anson. Jared, and Nelson, in 1837, to section 15. Anson became a
clergyman.

Hiram Cross (1811-1882) came in [842 to section 25. He was an
[y improver of stock-breed-, and, took premiums at the first county fair.

WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 359

Stephen B. Davis married Esther Newell April 24, 1842. She was
probably a daughter of Marshall and Esther Newell.

Edwin DeWolf married Elizabeth C. McCracken, February 8, 1843.

David S. Elting was earlier of Lafayette. He married Eliza Manwell,
October 31, 1841.

Ephraim C. Harlow (1806-1899) was son of Levi Harlow and Eliza-
beth Cary. He married Emeline (1811-1891), daughter of Joseph Bigelow,
and lived on section 1, near Little Prairie.

Caleb Harris (1810-1893), son of Jeremiah Harris and Priscilla Cole,
grandson of Anthony Harris, Jr.. was born in Jefferson county, New York.
He married April 11, 1844, Laura Ann Bronson (1822-1904). He came
with a brother, Levi, and brother-in-law, Ellis, in 1842. Wesley Harris
(1795-1884) and wife Esther ( 1789- 1852) are buried at Lagrange; but
relationship, if any, with Caleb is not learned.

Enos J. Hazard (1810-1857) married Celestia Knight, December 10,
1845. (His widow, Julia C, may have been the same person.) In 1848
he was chosen as assemblyman over Augustus C. Kinne and Thomas Water-
man.

Charles Heath (1818-1889) and wife Harriet E. (born 1817) were
parents of Julia M. Y.. late widow of William H. Morrison, who, was long
known in county and state service.

Nathani

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